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This dissertation explores the history of abortion law reform in Victoria between 1959 and 1974, contextualised in a feminist politics of reproduction. The aim of the research is to investigate the extent to which the history of abortion law reform in this state can be understood as part of the struggle of women for sexual self-determination and hence for full citizenship. As a result, one of the principal objectives of the thesis is to analyse the basis on which abortion is available in Victoria. The research draws on historical data, using the records of relevant contemporary organisations, the press, and interviews with some of the key people involved in advocating abortion law reform. In particular, the dissertation documents the abortion law reform experiences and struggles of Victorian women, including the attempts they made to contest their historic exclusion from participation in policy formulation and legislation related to reproduction. It begins with t he consolidation of the Crimes Act in 1958 and ends in 1974'with the passing of the national health and associated bills, which ensured public funding for abortion procedures. Social, political and economic changes in the preceding century led to overwhelming public support for abortion law reform in line with changing social mores and advances in reproductive science. But this did not result in legislative change enacted by a responsive and democratic government. Rather, the history of abortion law reform in Victoria is shown to be a case study of conflict, co-operation, co-option and collusion in five main arenas of vested interest. The first of these was state interest in fertility control, and thus women's sexual behaviour, as a reflection of national concerns about the size and composition of the Australian population. The second was a struggle for industrial control of a lucrative abortion industry, supported by systemic police corruption, medical corruption and collusion by politicians and officers of the Crown Law Department. The third factor was the political manoeuvring of a government determined to retain power by framing abortion as a medical rather than a legislativ e problem. Conflict between community calls for abortion law reform to protect doctors from prosecution on the one hand, and a political requirement for preference votes from the Democratic Labor Party on the other, was resolved in favour of the latter. The fourth factor was the professional struggle for medical control over reproduction, supported by civil liberties activists and liberal feminists seeking access to abortion without engaging in questions of political control over decision-making. The struggle by an increasingly organised feminist movement to reframe abortion as a political issue related to women's sexual self-determination, expressed as control over reproductive decision-making, was the final factor. As such, the dissertation is as much a case study of the factors at play in attempting to effect change in a capitalist patriarchy, as it is about abortion law reform per se. The thesis is organised within a historical framework that provides both an overview of the time period under consideration and a detailed account of the various struggles that took place within that period. The chapters are set out around the key events that shaped and were shaped by the struggle for law reform. These include the Menhennitt Ruling in 1969, the Kaye Inquiry into police corruption in 1970, the Medical Practices Clarification Bill in federal parliament in 1973 and the Proposed Abortion Inquiry in state parliament in 1973. I focus on those groups that had control over abortion policy and practice, as well as the main groups that worked to influence those bodies. These include churches, the media, political parties, and social movements - in particular the actions and attitudes of civil liberties and feminist groups. The conclusion locates the history of abortion law reform within the current socio-political and economic context, encouraging an examination of contemporary questions regarding women's control over reproductive decision-making. This includes an exploration of whether sexual self-determination and the human rights necessary to achieve full citizenship are possible for women given the deleterious impact ofneo-liberal ideology on funding those programs and policies that work towards equality, rather than 'choice', and freedom from oppression, rather than individual 'rights'.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Women's Studies, 1998? / Bibliography: leaves 1-11 at end.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 247-270). Available also in a digital version from Dissertation Abstracts.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Dept. of Political Science, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 291-319).

Thesis (LLM) --University of Pretoria, 2009. / No abstract available. Includes bibliographical references .

This thesis seeks to contribute to our understanding of why creditors and debtors do not ordinarily use China's reformed Enterprise Bankruptcy Law ('EBL'), whether the low use of the EBL is problematic, and if so, what can be done to ensure a more efficient resolution of corporate insolvencies and corporate financial distress in China. The EBL has been lauded – domestically and internationally – as a major legislative success. However, despite the rapidly growing number of companies, level of corporate indebtedness and non-performing loans – which should, one might expect, lead to an increase in the use of the EBL – the number of court-run insolvency cases has in fact been decreasing since the law was implemented in 2007. The thesis draws on newly collected insights from a series of interviews in China - to supplement the scarce and often incoherent data that is available - to determine what motivates debtors and creditors not to use the EBL. The findings are presented as four complementary constraints on a more effective and efficient operation of the EBL. First two constraints relate to the low payoffs under the EBL that debtors and creditors expect to receive due to (i) flaws in the EBL itself and (ii) problems in surrounding non-bankruptcy rules and practices that reduce or prevent recoveries under the EBL. A third constraint affects those debtors and creditors who wish to use the EBL despite the low expected payoffs – for example to avoid directors' liability for corporate insolvency – but are prevented from doing so due to (iii) potential enforcers' limitations and biases. A fourth and final constraint on the use of the EBL that reinforces debtors' and creditors' unwillingness to use the EBL is (iv) the parties' (often inaccurate) perception that alternative debt enforcement mechanisms may offer comparatively higher payoffs (v. the EBL). Building on this discussion, the thesis then considers the desirability of, and options for, reform. It argues that reform and subsequent greater use of court-enforced insolvency law are desirable in China because the (reformed) EBL has the potential to contribute to economic development through more efficient resolution of complex financial distress; better control of bad debt; easier and cheaper corporate financing; more efficient allocation of resources; and more entrepreneurial activity. However, because the necessary changes to deliver this are likely to be slow in coming, it proposes a dual-track reform encompassing (i) substantive reform of the EBL and select non-bankruptcy laws and practices; accompanied by (ii) the introduction of a new speedy, independent and confidential mechanism for insolvency resolution, 'MedArb'.

A survey and analysis of Canadian statutes and cases affecting the management of the mentally disordered demonstrates that this area of law has experienced several periods of reform since 1900. In the early 1900's, legislation was characterized by 'limited legalism'. Governments subsequently eased, removed, and then re-imposed forms of judicial and quasi-judicial supervision over the activities of medical practitioners, and the periods of reform are referred to as 'medicalization', 'enhanced medicalization', and the 'new legalism'. The law reforms are associated with changes in state strategies for the management of the mentally disordered, and the relationship between these reforms and changes, the state, structural conditions (e.g., shifts in economic policy), and human agency (e.g., the work of reformers) is explored through an analysis of the emergence of 'enhanced medicalization' in the 1950's/60's, and the rise of the 'new legalism' in the 1970's/80's. This includes a detailed case study of shifts in strategy and the process of law reform in the province of British Columbia. This component of the research involved an analysis of documentary and archival materials, and the structuralist theoretical trajectory within the neo-Marxist sociology of state and law is utilized to explain the changes. Enhanced medicalization was an integral part of a strategy involving de-institutionalization, an abandonment of segregated confinement, and the use of community-based resources integrated with the health care component of a Keynesian, 'welfare state'. Institutions were seriously over-crowded, ineffective, expensive, and discredited, and the emergence of social assistance and other features of the welfare state enabled the development of alternatives. The conditions were favourable to the efforts of a group of reformers that was an auxiliary part of the state apparatus; namely, the Canadian Mental Health Association. The latter constructed a strategy and supporting legislation which advanced the interests of psychiatry and resolved the state's order maintenance and legitimation problems in a manner consistent with welfare state expansion. Economic difficulties and changes which began to emerge in the 1970's created new problems for the state, and cost-stabilization and restraint measures were imposed throughout the politically sensitive health care field. The strategy for the management of the mentally disordered consequently shifted to, in particular, accelerated de-institutionalization aimed at hospital closure. In order to facilitate and legitimate the shift, the state has adopted reforms proposed by the patients' rights movement and, despite the objections of organized psychiatry, introduced legislation which limits the use of hospitals and erodes medical domination (i.e., the new legalism). The contributions to the sociologies of social control, state and law are discussed and the convergence of these fields is identified. The implications for the neo-Marxist theoretical research programme are examined. / Arts, Faculty of / Anthropology, Department of / Graduate

LL.M.

This dissertation examines whether the lack of ready access by trustees to a codified set of their fiduciary duties is contributing to poor governance of trusts and whether setting out these duties in the Trust Property Control Act would promote good governance. Chapter 1 considers whether corporate law reform is an appropriate basis for comparison when considering the codification of trustees’ fiduciary duties. It suggests that corporate law is a useful comparator because it has well-developed law in relation to fiduciary duties, which has also shaped trust law. Twenty plus years after the Trust Property Control Act was enacted, South Africa’s socio-economic environment has changed dramatically and trusts are today used extensively and for many purposes. Trust law needs to keep pace with this change, as well as current thinking on good governance. It also needs to better serve today’s vast number of trustees of varying skill and experience. The dissertation asks what lessons can be learned from considering the partial codification of directors’ fiduciary duties in the Companies Act 2008 and whether the proposed codification will advance governance of trusts and benefit beneficiaries in fundamental ways. It uses primary and secondary sources and comparative research in considering the approach to codification of fiduciary duties in New Zealand, Australia and England. The newly enacted New Zealand Trusts Act 38 of 2019 is particularly relevant and timely. Chapter 2 examines the theory of and rationale for codification, and the arguments of its opponents, generally, as well as specifically in relation to the Companies Act 2008. It also considers the influence of King IV. Chapter 3 examines fiduciary duties identified in trust cases with a view to formulating a body of core duties incorporated into the partial codification proposed in the subsequent chapter. These amendments are suggested as part of a multi-pronged approach to improved governance in trust law. The final chapter concludes that although the partial codification of directors’ fiduciary duties in the Companies Act offers, in principal, useful guidance, it cannot serve as a template for amendments to the Trust Property Control Act. By contrast, the legislative action proposed in chapter 4 is consistent with international trends in governance and should advance the cause of good governance in trust law. / Mini Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Private Law / LLM / Unrestricted