Electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes was largely unregulated prior to 1978. The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (hereinafter "FISA") was enacted to implement a judicial authorization process for foreign intelligence electronic surveillance that would effectively balance competing needs for national security and civil liberty under the Fourth Amendment. This study examines the evolution of FISA and its effectiveness under the Fourth Amendment, as assessed by federal reviewing courts and scholars since the statute's enactment. The study concludes that the FISA electronic surveillance authorization process has been effective in providing a constitutional mechanism to obtain foreign intelligence information.

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This study investigates the current bureaucratic struggles that exist within the U.S. intelligence community as a result of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act (IRTPA) of 2004. The first part of this research examines the history of intelligence reform in the United States beginning with the National Security Act of 1947. The second part provides an indepth discussion of the 2004 legislation as well as an examination of the main bureaucratic conflicts that have arisen between the Director of National Intelligence (DNI) and the rest of the U.S. intelligence community. This study used the bureaucratic politics model to explain the development of the current disagreements, the reasons behind the DNI‘s struggle for power, and the intelligence community‘s inability to adapt to the reform. This research determined that the current conflicts have occurred as a result of the unclear authorities issued to the DNI by IRTPA and have been further exacerbated by interest-driven intelligence agencies and a well-developed culture that has proven difficult to abandon. This research also provides insight into several alternative approaches that can be used to explain the current U.S. intelligence reform process. Additionally, recommendations were made for reducing the bureaucratic friction that currently exists within the intelligence community and to strengthen the overall authority of the Director of National Intelligence.

Inflation, especially recently, has distorted the nominal historical-cost measurement of gains and losses from transactions in assets. This distortion has exacerbated the existing controversy over the federal taxation of such gains and losses realized by individuals. The main purpose of the study was to examine the equity of actual and proposed methods respecting such taxation in view of these inflation distortions. Particularly, the study investigated how the applicable law, as it was in the immediate past (1977 Law), as it is now (1979 Law), and as many have proposed that it should be (the Reform Plan), compared under the traditional ability-to-pay theory of equity. The Reform Plan combines two current and popular tax reform proposals, the comprehensive income tax and indexing. As it was interpreted and applied in this study, gains and losses from transactions in assets were fully included in income, after they were indexed for inflation. Indexing consists of multiplying the historical cost of an asset by the ratio of some price index (herein the CPI) at the time of disposition to the index at the time of acquisition. Subtracting the result from the disposition price gives a gain or loss measured in real, inflation-adjusted terms. The comparisons of the three taxing methods were based upon historical tax-return data of 224 individual taxpayers for 1970-1977. The non-random manner in which the taxpayers were selected precludes the results and conclusions of the study from being statistically extended to the population of U.S. taxpayers. Significantly, however, the tax characteristics of the selected taxpayers indicated that they were more sensitive to effects of inflation than their national counterparts. Provisions of 1979 Law and the Reform Plan were simulated on the historical data, resulting in recomputed incomes and tax liabilities. The historical and recomputed incomes and taxes were then averaged by taxpayer over the eight years. These averages gave better approximations of the normal financial status of the taxpayers than single-year data. Data generated in the Reform Plan simulation indicated that the selected taxpayers' historical gains and losses were substantially distorted by inflation. Moreover, the proportional effects of inflation decreased as taxpayers' income increased. These findings were fully consistent with two published studies. Various procedures measured and compared the horizontal equities and vertical equities (progressivities) of the three disparite taxing methods. None of them exhibited any clear, unambiguous superior ratings. The Reform Plan was only slightly more horizontally equitable and only slightly more progressive than 1977 Law; 1979 Law ranked last in both analyses, but by small margins. Importantly, under all three methods, progressivity was maintained at higher income levels, but only when income was defined in real terms. When income was defined in nominal terms, a marked decrease in progressivity was manifested. This finding suggests that the appearance at these levels of reduced progressivity, and hence of reduced vertical equity, may be an illusion. Given the above findings, perhaps too much historical emphasis has been placed on the equity benchmark in evaluating the taxation of individuals' gains and losses from transactions in assets. If so, then other judgmental criteria would seem to take on relatively greater importance. Four such criteria deemed pertinent were neutrality, simplicity, mitigation of the "lock-in effect" and stimulation of capital information. The Reform Plan appeared to be more neutral than either 1977 or 1979 Law. Whether it is simpler is questionable. Probably less unrealized gains would be locked-in under the Reform Plan. However, with respect to capital formation, considerable theoretical disagreement precluded a conclusion as to which taxing method would be more stimulative.

The primary questions addressed in this dissertation are whether race-based admissions policies in charter schools are constitutionally permissible, and if not, how could an admissions policy be designed so that it would promote school diversity without violating the law? These questions are important because there are significant numbers of philosophers and scholars who hypothesize that student body diversity not only enhances educational outcomes but also is a necessary component of civic education in a liberal democracy. The researcher takes no particular stance on the benefits of educational diversity, focusing instead on the constitutional questions raised by the use of race-sensitive policies in the interest of diversity. The primary methodology used throughout is legal research, though the literature review includes references to political philosophers and social scientists as well as primary legal sources. Chapter I outlines the most frequent arguments made in favor of school diversity and suggests that the judicial philosophy expressed by the Supreme Court over the last twenty-five years has moved away from the philosophy expressed in Brown v. Board. In Chapter II, Supreme Court precedent on affirmative action policies is analyzed, focusing mainly on the decision of the divided Court in University of California Board of Regents v. Bakke. Chapter III provides a detailed analysis of how six different Federal Circuit Courts interpreted Bakke, highlighting numerous recurring judicial themes and concerns. In Chapter IV, existing charter school laws are examined state by state. Chapter V suggests several policy options for those interested in promoting a diverse charter school student body.

This study examined the effects of entrepreneurship level and legal regulatory environment on environmental scanning in one component of the health services industry, private practice physical therapy. Two aspects of scanning served as dependent variables: (1) extent to which firms scrutinized six environmental sectors (competitor, customer, technological, regulatory, economic, social-political) and (2) frequency of information source use (human vs. written). Availability of information was a covariate for frequency of source use. Three levels of entrepreneurship were determined by scores on the Covin and Slevin (1986) entrepreneurship scale. Firms were placed in one of three legal regulatory categories according to the state in which the firm delivered services. A structured questionnaire was sent to 450 randomly selected members of the American Physical Therapy Association's Private Practice Section. Respondents were major decision makers, e.g., owners, chief executive officers. The sample was stratified according to three types of regulatory environment. A response rate of 75% was achieved (n = 318) with equal representation from each stratum. All questionnaire subscales exhibited high internal reliability and validity. The study used a 3x3 factorial design to analyze the data. Two multivariate analyses were conducted, one for each dependent variable set. Results indicated that "high" entrepreneurial level firms scanned the technological, competitor and customer environmental sectors to a significantly greater degree than "middle" or "low" level groups, regardless of type of legal regulatory environment. Also, "high" level firms were found to use human sources to a significantly greater degree than did lower level groups. Empirical evidence supporting Miles and Snow's (1978) proposition that "high" level entrepreneurial firms (prospectors) monitor a wider range of environmental conditions when compared to "low" level (defender) firms was presented. The results also confirmed that market and technological environments were scanned most often. Finally, the results added to the construct validity of the Covin and Slevin entrepreneurship scale and provided evidence of its generalizability to small businesses.

This study examines the reporting compliance, as defined by section 203(b) of the Labor -Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), 1959, of labor relations consultants who engage in persuader activity. Organized labor suggests that the loss in union strength results, in large part, from management's use of labor relations consultants and their failure to file required reports with the U.S. Department of Labor. Two samples of labor relations consultants known to have engaged in persuader activity and two samples of those who could be engaged in persuader activity are identified. A research questionnaire is mailed to 779 of the total of 887 labor relations consultants for whom an address could be developed. Discriminant analysis using 16 variables correctly classifies 93.8 percent of the responding labor relations consultants grouped according to whether they had filed required reports. Other discriminant analyses using selected variables are also conducted. Three associated questions are answered. First, there are an estimated 850 labor relations consultants who have engaged in persuader activity or who can be presumed to have engaged in persuader activity. Of this number, almost 500 are estimated to have engaged in persuader activity and only 30 percent of these are estimated to have filed required reports. Second, the labor relations consultants surveyed is, on average, male, an attorney, is titled "president" and is located in California, Michigan or Illinois. Third, solely in the context of National Labor Relations Board election processes, the effect on the loss of the union strength caused by (1) labor relations consultants and (2) the failure of the consultants who engaged in persuader activity to file a required report cannot be determined. However, because the estimated decrease in the number of union members over the years 1960 - 1989 exceeds the number of eligible voters in N.L.R.B. elections lost by unions over the same period, this effect is assessed as minimal

This study attempts to show that judicial review of administrative decisions has provided the greatest degree of protection for consumers during the time that natural gas has been subject to regulation by the Federal Power Commission. The first part of the investigation deals with the activities of the regulatory agency since controls were established in 1938. It continues with a discussion of the influence of consumer and producer interests on the legislative process. The contributions of the courts to policy-making is discussed in the following section. The report concludes that more protection from the political environment could be realized by placing the major responsibility for the regulatory program in the hands of the Executive branch.

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Although China's legal and policy environment for the VC industry is improving, Chinese policy makers who wish to promote the VC in China need to increase the regulatory supply of and legal demand for VC. Against the background of this study of the experiences of the U.S. VC industry, it becomes clear that some VC legal techniques employed in the U.S. should be adopted in China. Based on the lessons learned in the U.S., China should improve its financial liberalization, create new legal techniques for VC governance in ventures, promote its exit channels, and provide a proper stimulus policy. / Since the future of China's VC industry is likely follow the model presented by the VC industry in the U.S., which is seen by most commentators as the best VC industry in the world, China should study the important lessons learned in the century of VC legal experiences in the U.S. This study compares the Chinese VC legal system with that of the U.S. in four aspects: funding, governance in ventures, exits, and stimulus. / The main problems of China's VC legal system include those of fundraising, overly complex foreign VC investment restrictions, limited exit channels, and ineffective governmental stimulus. In an attempt to solve these problems, this study examines six key factors that influence the nature and performance of a proper VC legal framework. These factors include the formation and fundraising of VC firms, the usual life cycle of VC investment, the impact of economic and political policy on VC development, the governance of ventures, an established financial market, and governmental VC stimulus. / Venture capital (VC) is the investment by a financial firm in high-growth, high-risk, and high-tech private start-ups for high returns in the future. Since the importance of VC for the high technology sector and the economy as a whole has been widely accepted in China, it follows that a successful VC industry is an important tool for China to further develop and strengthen its economy and high technology industry. A well designed legal system will attract more investors to engage in China's VC industry, while a poorly designed legal regime will throw obstacles in the way of investments for the industry. This study offers evidence on how a proper legal framework may be established for China's VC industry. / Zhang, Zhang. / Advisers: David Donald; Xi Chao. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 73-01, Section: A, page: . / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Chinese University of Hong Kong, 2010. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 260-281). / Electronic reproduction. Hong Kong : Chinese University of Hong Kong, [2012] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Electronic reproduction. [Ann Arbor, MI] : ProQuest Information and Learning, [201-] System requirements: Adobe Acrobat Reader. Available via World Wide Web. / Abstract also in Chinese.