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Since the current policy known as "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" was adopted in the early 1990s, several changes have taken place which call into question the policy's validity. Firstly, the argument proponents of the ban use to justify it, namely that cohesion would suffer if admitted homosexuals were allowed to serve, has been undercut by social science analyses on the correlation between cohesion and performance. Their argument has also been undercut by empirical evidence from several nations that have lifted all restrictions on homosexual service, yet have suffered no decrease in cohesion or performance, despite the reticence of their respective militaries to lift the bans. At the same time, the US public has moved toward a greater acceptance of the notion of admitted homosexuals serving in the military, with 79% approving in a December 2003 Gallup Poll, including 91% of all Americans age 18 - 29. Evidence also indicates the current policy costs at least $40 million per year just to replace those who have been discharged due to their sexual orientation. Other costs include wasted human resources at a time of critical shortfalls in many specialties essential to the ongoing Global War on Terror, and the immeasurable cost of sanctioned unjustifiable discrimination by the US Government. The time to lift all restrictions on homosexual service in the US Armed Forces has come. / Major, United States Air Force

Approved for public release, distribution unlimited / Women are potent symbols of identity. They signify a vision of society that identifies a nation. The Middle East provides a perfect example of this. It has one of the highest rates of population growth in the world, yet maintains one of the lowest literacy rates and labor force participation among women. This has a direct impact on their ability to be seen as modern states. Furthermore the Middle East has come under attack for having one of the poorest records of human rights, particularly in reference to women. Contrary to this implication Middle Eastern women have taken extremely active roles in the gender debate and the socio-political struggles within their societies. The results of this participation have yielded a number of different interpretations of what it means to be a feminist and if this title is even something that Muslim women want. It has also created a very complex relationship between the west and western feminism which has deep implications in contemporary gender politics.

It is the purpose of this study to examine the underlying nature of the relative risk associated with an audit engagement.

LL.M. (Labour Law) / This minor dissertation critically evaluates the legal position of employees’ rights regarding parental leave. The right to maternity, paternity and parental leave dramatically varies between many countries, namely the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Norway, Namibia, Kenya and South Africa. The fact that only women can give birth to a child has stereotypically created a view that only women should be entitled to parental leave. The argument that is presented in this dissertation is fathers are not treated as women’s equal when it comes to parental leave, specifically in South African legislation. The question that this dissertation aims to address is why women are primarily given the responsibility of caregiver, through parental leave, while men are excluded from any rights to parental leave. The aim of this research is to compare and evaluate the legal position of parental leave in a South African with other foreign countries.

Abstract This research report examines the relationship between legal status and national identity formation. It is based on a qualitative research of former refugees from Mozambique who have lived and settled in the Northern Province of South Africa now called Limpopo province in the border areas with Mozambique for over twenty years. The report compares the narratives of former Mozambican refugees in South Africa who have acquired permanent residence and citizenship with those that are undocumented. The distinction between undocumented and documented former refugees allows me to look at the role of access to services in identity formation, since most government services in South Africa, as elsewhere, are not accessible without legal documentation. Since most services are, however, accessible for both permanent residents and citizens, the distinction between these two statuses allow me to explore whether there is a more symbolic meaning attached to citizenship. Drawing from citizenship theory, variations in the attachment to South Africa or Mozambique that emerged in the research data are analysed in terms of the refugees’ experience of social inclusion or social exclusion norms. The benefits of social inclusion and how it shapes positive attitudes towards attaching to South Africa is discussed.

I investigate the association between independent directors' monitoring roles as distinguished by whether they reside on the audit committee (ACs) or not (NACs) and their respective ownership and whether Section 301 or a proxy for alternative independent monitoring (the percentage of institutional ownership) affects this relation. Specifically, I examine whether the objectivity required of serving as an AC (consistent with their audit function role) or alignment with investors (consistent with agency theory) dominates in determining independent directors' level of share ownership. Using generalized estimations of equations I provide evidence that ACs hold less ownership than NACs that suggests differences with respect to independence in appearance/ alignment with shareholder interests not previously documented amongst independent directors. I also find evidence that Section 301 may contribute to this differential ownership while the presence of institutional ownership moderates this relationship. / by John Incardona. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2010. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2010. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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Relying on interviews of Indian rights lawyers as well as archival research, this collective history excavates a missing page in the history of the modern tribal sovereignty movement. At a time when vocal Native American political protests were raging from Washington State, to Alcatraz Island, to Washington, D.C., a small group of newly graduated lawyers started quietly resurrecting Indian rights through the law. Between 1964 and 1974, these non-Indian and Native American lawyers litigated on behalf of Indians, established legal assistance programs as part of the War on Poverty efforts to provide American citizens with equal access to a better life, and founded institutions to support the protection of tribal rights. In the process, they would also inadvertently create both a profession and an academic field—Indian law as we know it today—which has since attracted an increasing number of lawyers, including Native Americans. This story is an attempt at reconstituting a major dimension of the rise of tribal sovereignty in the postwar era, one that has until now remained in the shadows of history: how Indian rights, considered obsolete until the 1960s, gained legitimacy by seizing a series of opportunities made available in part through ‘accidents’ of history. The work done by this new generation of Indian rights lawyers between the mid-1960s and the mid-1970s recast definitions of tribal sovereignty in Indian Country as well as the practice and teaching of Indian law. At its core, this project seeks to realize three aspirations: First, to explain where Native American rights come from and how they interact, engage, and fit in with American law; second, to dissect the uses and limitations of law as an avenue for the pursuit of social justice; and third, to probe the question of whether the United States can function as a plural state capable of hosting multiple visions of politics, law, and culture.

The purpose of this study was to assess the effects of selected characteristics on the outcomes of those special education due process hearings brought forth in the state of Texas from September 1, 1983, to September 1, 1992. A further purpose was to determine if district characteristics of size or location affect the likelihood of a district's becoming involved in a special education due process hearing. Data for the study was collected for all special education due process hearings conducted in the State of Texas from September 1, 1983, to September 1, 1992. A coding system was used to record the data for the study and the Chi-square test of independence was used to determine whether a relationship existed between the selected variable (hearing issue, disability classifications and restrictiveness of placement) and hearing outcome. The frequency of involvement in hearings for districts of various size and urban characteristics was displayed as a percentage.