Mr Justice Corbett made a substantial contribution to the South African tax law as he delivered several judgements during his long career on the bench. Starting from the lower ranks as a judge he became Chief Justice of South Africa. Precedents set by his judgements are considered important and indicative of the level of South African tax law. This dissertation observes his background, looks at the operations of the tax court in South Africa and examines whether his judgements were cited and applied in subsequent cases as accepted precedent. International case law is referred to, to compare his judgements with comparable international tax law. / Auditing / M. Comm. (Accounting)

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in English / Writer investigates the constitutionality of section 18(4)(d) of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 against the backdrop of the South African common law and the common law of comparative legal systems. In the South Africa law the mother of an illegitimate child has guardianship. The natural father does not have parental power which weakens his legal position. In analysing the judgement of the Constitutional Court, writer criticises the court for stating that in the case of a newborn baby the kind of discrimination which section 18( 4 )( d) authorises against a natural father may be justifiable in the initial period after the child is born. The constitutional position of the natural father in American jurisprudence is discussed at length. Writer concludes that the natural father has to take positive steps to vest a right to be heard in an adoption application. Proposals for legal reform are also made. / Private Law / LL. M. (Law)

Made available in DSpace on 2016-04-26T20:23:30Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Rodrigo Cesar de Oliveira Marinho.pdf: 2034105 bytes, checksum: c5f56cb3c9fc76d86114ccc6a95d19e7 (MD5) Previous issue date: 2015-02-27 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This work is a study regarding the limitation of the effects and particularly of the prospective effects of decisions issued by appellate courts that result in a change to a previous holding and, consequently, recognize a new or more burdensome legal tax relationship. It begins with the distinction between a legal rule and the text of the law (prescriptive statement), with the legal rule being considered to be the result of an interpretive process conducted by all those who have the necessary cognitive ability. For them, the judicial branch is the authentic interpreter the one with the last word regarding what the law is, regardless of and overriding other interpretive results. When the interpretive results are coincident (the same legal rule) or when the judicial branch states the meaning of the legal rule, there is an idealization of a stable nucleus of legal rules. That nucleus represents certainty in regard to the meaning that should be attributed to a given normative text, so as to produce foreseeability and stability, founded on a general state of legitimate expectations and acting as guidelines for taxpayers conduct. Working from these premises, on the basis of legal certainty, which is a fundamental element of a democratic state that intends to be subject to the rule of law, set upon the pillars of the principals of private property, liberty and equality and grounded on the application of the rules of non-retroactive enforcement and legality to legal rules (and not merely to legal texts), this work seeks to justify the necessary prospective limitation of the effects of a decision that establishes a new legal holding, which consequently eliminates a previously settled holding, in relation to which taxpayers acted based on the legitimate expectation that they were acting in accordance with that which the authentic interpreter of the law held to be correct / Este trabalho tem por objeto o estudo sobre a modulação dos efeitos especialmente a aplicação de efeitos prospectivos das decisões proferidas pelos tribunais superiores que impliquem alteração de entendimento anteriormente manifestado e, consequentemente, reconheçam uma nova ou mais onerosa relação jurídica tributária. Partiu-se da distinção entre norma jurídica e texto de lei (enunciado prescritivo), considerando ser a norma jurídica resultante de um processo interpretativo realizado por todos aqueles que disponham do mínimo de senso cognitivo. Estes têm no intérprete autêntico, no Poder Judiciário, a figura daquele que possui a última palavra sobre o que é o direito, independentemente dos demais resultados interpretativos e a estes se sobrepondo. Existindo coincidência nos resultados interpretativos (mesma norma jurídica), ou dizendo, o Poder Judiciário, qual o sentido da norma jurídica, há a idealização de um núcleo estável de normas jurídicas. Tal núcleo representa a certeza em relação ao sentido que deve ser atribuído a determinado texto normativo, de modo a gerar previsibilidade e estabilidade, fundadas num estado geral de confiança legítima e orientadoras das condutas dos contribuintes. A partir dessas premissas, com base na segurança jurídica, enquanto elemento fundamental do Estado Democrático que se pretenda ser de Direito, elevada sobre os pilares dos princípios da propriedade, da liberdade e da igualdade e com fundamento na aplicação das regras da irretroatividade e da legalidade às normas jurídicas (e não apenas aos textos legais), este trabalho intenta justificar a necessária modulação prospectiva dos efeitos da decisão que estabelece um novo entendimento jurisprudencial, afastando, consequentemente, entendimento anteriormente pacificado, em relação ao qual os contribuintes atuaram baseados na confiança legítima de que estavam agindo segundo aquilo que o intérprete autêntico entendia ser o correto

Text in Afrikaans, abstract in English / Writer investigates the constitutionality of section 18(4)(d) of the Child Care Act 74 of 1983 against the backdrop of the South African common law and the common law of comparative legal systems. In the South Africa law the mother of an illegitimate child has guardianship. The natural father does not have parental power which weakens his legal position. In analysing the judgement of the Constitutional Court, writer criticises the court for stating that in the case of a newborn baby the kind of discrimination which section 18( 4 )( d) authorises against a natural father may be justifiable in the initial period after the child is born. The constitutional position of the natural father in American jurisprudence is discussed at length. Writer concludes that the natural father has to take positive steps to vest a right to be heard in an adoption application. Proposals for legal reform are also made. / Private Law / LL. M. (Law)

Pas de résumé disponible / Pas de résumé disponible

La tesi ha per oggetto l’autotutela amministrativa, specialmente quella c.d. decisoria “spontanea”, ovvero quell’insieme di poteri che consentono all’amministrazione di riesaminare i propri provvedimenti e di rimuoverli a vario titolo.
Di questi poteri si è indagato il fondamento dogmatico e positivo. La questione del fondamento è stata per lunghi anni affrontata dalla dottrina e dalla giurisprudenza in termini totalmente pre-critici e non problematici: l’esistenza di questi poteri era semplicemente scontata e le riflessioni sulla loro base giuridica si esaurivano perlopiù nella constatazione della loro necessità nell’immemore consenso circa la loro ammissibilità. Negli ultimi anni, invece, una parte degli Autori ha disconosciuto la natura implicita e per così dire “originaria” di questi poteri e ne ha perciò patrocinato la stretta riconduzione al principio di legalità: in altre parole, l’annullamento e la revoca non sarebbero affatto conseguenza della c.d. inesauribilità del potere amministrativo – negata da questa dottrina – e sarebbero perciò oggi ammissibili unicamente nei casi e nei modi disciplinati dalle due norme introdotte nella legge sul procedimento nel 2005. Ciò a garanzia della certezza dei rapporti giuridici e del legittimo affidamento dei destinatari dei provvedimenti ampliativi. Secondo un filone ricostruttivo in pare contrastante con il primo, altri Autori hanno inteso valorizzare gli elementi de iure condito a favore della obbligatorietà dell’avvio del procedimento di riesame, auspicandone contemporaneamente la generalizzazione, nell’ottica di una più complessiva trasformazione dell’annullamento d’ufficio in un nuovo istituto ibrido, rispondente alla funzione di alternative dispute risolution system o, se si vuole, di ricorso gerarchico. Per le stesse ragioni, l’istituto dovrebbe perdere il carattere ampiamente discrezionale, in favore di una vincolatezza totale o parziale. Questo secondo “fronte di attacco” alla ricostruzione tradizionale intende offrire soluzione al venir meno del sistema dei controlli di legalità sull’azione amministrativa. Lo studio ha sottoposto a verifica entrambi i filoni evolutivi richiamati, discostandosi dal secondo e, pur accogliendo parte delle argomentazioni ad esso sottostanti, anche dal primo. Quanto alla teoria dell’esauribilità del potere amministrativo, oggetto della prima linea evolutiva, si è ritenuto di condividere le considerazioni circa la tutela dell’affidamento degli interessati e della stabilità dei rapporti giuridici. È parsa tuttavia meglio rispondente alle categorie generali e alle esigenze del sistema (anche sulla base di una visione del diritto amministrativo quale “diritto dei terzi”, per natura volto alla tutela dell’interesse generale e non solo dell’interesse privato particolare coinvolto dall’esercizio del potere) la conservazione della tradizionale inesauribilità del potere, seppur assai mitigata, nella pratica, con riferimento all’esercizio dei poteri di ritiro degli atti favorevoli ai privati il cui affidamento sia concretamente meritevole di tutela. La natura discrezionale dell’annullamento d’ufficio (e della revoca), sottoposta a critica dalla seconda linea evolutiva, viene difesa sia sul piano del diritto positivo e pretorio (attraverso la riconduzione dei principali casi di annullamento c.d. doveroso al modello generale), sia sul piano delle categorie generali, a partire dalla natura dei poteri coinvolti e dall’analisi delle posizioni giuridiche dei soggetti interessati dai procedimenti di secondo grado. / The thesis focuses on the Italian system of so called autoprotection or selfprotection. This expression refers to the powers of public administration to revoke its own acts when deemed necessary to repair a vice of legitimacy or a vice of opportunity, without being bind to resort to the courts. Given the aim of this powers – the same of first grade powers plus a semi-judicial one – they are usually meant by judges and scholars as “widely discretionary”. Furthermore, it has always been believed that the choice to activate the correspondent proceeding is totally free for public administration; consequently, a demand of interested parties does not make binding the start of the procedure, opposite to what happens with administrative appeal proceedings. In recent years ECJ, ECHR and national case law has emboldened the limits to selfredress, making clear that legitimate expectations and the public interest to legal certainty must be taken into consideration and given sufficient protection. Lately, also the Legislator followed, making the annulment and the revocation harder to be put in effect when the first act is favorable to the addressed subject. In such cases, the revocation cannot be ordered for a mere reconsideration of already known circumstances (ius poenitendi) but only if new ones show up. At the same time, ex officio annulment is precluded after 18 months from the issuing of the first act, instead of the previous general limit of a “reasonable time”. On the other hand, the case law has apparently pointed out some hypothesis of mandatory annulment, such as for “anticomunitarian acts” and cost-producing acts. Based on these two orientation, some scholars suggested a global rethinking of the self-protection, its bases and its rules. The study analyzes the case law and the latest legislative reforms, proving that no mandatory annulment exists in the Italian legal system. Therefore, nor the ECJ principle of equivalence nor other principles require that selfredress become generally obliged. The thesis also aims to prove that selfprotection remains a discretionary power, in order to ensure that the contrasting needs (the rule of law on the one hand, and the legal certainty and legitimate expectation on the other hand) can be properly balanced in every decision, according to the Constitutional provision of article 97, which requires that both impartiality and good administration are pursued.