This study examines landownership structures and settlement during the Middle Ages in the province of Östergötland in Sweden. It departs from a critical approach to the established view of social structure and property in the Scandinavian medieval society. The investigations are made at two levels. The first level is a cross section of the mid 16th century. This investigation shows that lay aristocrats and ecclesiastical institutions controlled most of the land, especially in the core areas of the parishes. The second level is a detailed investigation at the farm level in six parishes starting from the middle of the 16th century and working retrogresively to the early Middle Ages. This study shows that the landowning structure of the 16th century can be traced back to about AD 1300. For the early Middle Ages reconstructions are made through inheritance successions and genealogies of the aristocratic families. These reconstructions show that, in some parishes, most of the land was probably controlled by a few very rich families or dynasties during the early Middle Ages. The results lead to a question about the Viking Age and medieval society in general. This question is answered in a hypothesis stressing the development of the concept of land ownership in combination with the development of the land tenure system as one of the important factors for reproduction of local power during the Viking Age and early Middle Ages.

- 1 - The protection of the creative industrial property rights and international law The topic of submitted thesis is "The protection of the creative industrial property rights and international law". Its aim is to analyse the regulation of creative industrial property rights from the international perspective. The thesis is divided into two main parts. In the first one I have described the history of international cooperation in the field of industrial property protection, the milestones to be emphasized are the Paris Convention for the Protection of Industrial Property Rights (1883), the Convention Establishing the World Intellectual Property Organization (1967) and the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (1994). Some attempts of regional cooperation are briefly discussed, especially those in Europe (European Union, European patent organization), but others in the Eurasian area, Africa, Asia, South America and other parts of the world as well. The second part of the thesis is focused on the individual types of creative industrial property rights. The most important is the patent protection, besides the Paris Convention and the TRIPS Agreement there are some other relevant legal instruments, such as the European Patent Convention, the Patent Cooperation Treaty, the Patent...

Name of the thesis: An audiovisual works In my final thesis, I tried to summarize the current legal regulation of an audiovisual works and the rights and obligation relating thereto. In the thesis, I mainly deal with Czech private law legislation, as regulated particularly in Act No. 121/2000 Coll., Copyright Act, as amended, and with regards to License Agreement in Act No. 89/2012 Coll., Civil Code, as amended, or other legal acts. In the first chapter, I focus on different sources of legal regulation of an audiovisual works and its historical development in public international law, secondary law of the EU and also in national legislation. In the second, third and fourth chapter, I elaborate on the defintion of the term "audiovisual work" and its author, as well as the term and author of a "work audiovisually used" and "performances audiovisually used." These works and performances, together with audio records, constitute basic elements which audiovisual works might be composed of. In chapter five and six, I highlight the specific position of audio and audiovisual records producers and define the term of a "producer of audio record" and "producer of audiovisual record". Moreover, producers of an audiovisual works are given particular rights towards authors of works and performances audiovisually...

Um politische Ziele wie Wirtschaftswachstum, geringe Arbeitslosigkeit und langfristige internationale Wettbewerbsfähigkeit zu erreichen, wird die Förderung der nationalen Innovationstätigkeit als ein zentrales Element für erfolgreiche Wirtschaftspolitik angesehen. Diese Dissertation trägt zu der Diskussion über den Einfluss von regulativen und finanziellen Politikinstrumenten auf unternehmerische Entscheidungen bei, indem die Effekte von spezifischen Politikinstrumenten auf die individuelle Innovationstätigkeit und das Kooperationsverhalten analysiert werden. Es werden dabei die Effekte dreier Politikinstrumente – intellektuelle Eigentumsrechte, Innovationswettbewerbe und Subventionen – mit Hilfe von Laborexperimenten in einem neuen experimentellen Design untersucht, das im Kern eine Scrabble-ähnliche Wort-Suchaufgabe beinhaltet. Auf diese Weise können die individuellen Reaktionen auf die institutionellen Parameter im Rahmen eines sequentiellen Innovationsprozesses simuliert werden. Die Ergebnisse des ersten Experiments bezüglich intellektueller Eigentumsrechte zeigen, dass diese einen negativen Effekt auf das Auftreten sequentieller Innovationen haben. Die Wohlfahrt sinkt durch das Vorhandensein von intellektuellen Eigentumsrechten signifikant um 20 bis 30 Prozent, da eine geringere Anzahl und weniger wertvolle Innovationen erstellt werden. Im zweiten Experiment werden die Effekte von Innovationswettbewerben untersucht. Im Ergebnis sinkt in beiden untersuchten Wettbewerben die Kooperationsbereitschaft, jedoch haben Innovationswettbewerbe weder Einfluss auf die Kooperationsneigung der Individuen noch auf die gesamte Innovationsaktivität. Das dritte Experiment analysiert die Effekte von Subventionen auf das Innovationsverhalten und auf die Kooperationstätigkeit. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich ein substantielles Crowding-Out von privaten Investitionen und – je nach Subventionsart – keine positiven, bzw. sogar negative Effekte auf die Wohlfahrt. Im abschließenden Kapitel wird die aktuelle Literatur zur experimentellen Innovationsforschung zusammengefasst und ihre Vor- und Nachteile diskutiert. Insgesamt wird für eine pragmatische Nutzung von Laborexperimenten plädiert, um die Ergebnisse etablierter Methoden in der Innovationsforschung durch diesen methodischen Ansatz zu bereichern.

This dissertation examines the effect of the legal environment on access to several types of external finance, and on the decision to invest, for the 3 countries that make up the East African Community (EAC). The results suggest that well defined creditor rights are positively correlated with access to bank loans. Strong creditor rights places pressure on firms to keep good quality financial records. More lending takes place in this environment. A good quality legal system also improves access to non-bank finance, namely trade credit and leasing finance. The analysis demonstrates that collateral in the form of machinery and equipment improves access to bank finance. Collateral appears to be of greater importance when legal enforcement costs are relatively low and information asymmetry is more acute. The results also show that the property rights environment is important for investment. However, the protection of property rights has a more meaningful effect on investment in an environment where the costs of corruption are lower and courts are more efficient. Access to bank finance has a significant positive effect on investment. Thus, a legal system that improves the flow of funds from banks to firms promotes growth enhancing activities. Internal sources of finance are also found to be important for investment. It is recommended that strong emphasis is placed on improving the laws protecting the rights of creditors over property pledged as collateral and over information they can obtain from debtors. Debtor rights over assets in their possession should also be strengthened.

Os genéricos surgiram na década de 60 nos Estados e são medicamentos que, no geral, são mais baratos que os inovadores; por isso têm um papel importante no controle e diminuição dos preços dos medicamentos. Os preços mais baixos devem-se a economia com o desenvolvimento e testes clínicos pois esses investimentos já foram realizados pela empresa detentora do medicamento inovador. Em 1999 com a promulgação da Lei 9.787, foi instituída a política de Medicamentos Genéricos no Brasil. A nova Legislação introduziu uma série de inovações e exigências na produção, testes de qualidade e bioequivalência, prescrição, dispensação e preços de medicamentos. Houve reações contrárias iniciais para as quais o Governo teve que tomar medidas regulamentadoras para tentar corrigir os problemas que surgiram. O objetivo do trabalho é analisar as situações que levaram a adoção de tais medidas e sua eficácia. Propõem-se fazer uma analise das mudanças da Legislação de medicamentos genéricos no Brasil durante o período de 1999 a 2002 tendo como pano de fundo as características do mercado farmacêutico brasileiro e as reações do mercado. Para tanto, foram utilizadas notícias em jornais de grande circulação, bem como entrevistas com membros do órgão regulador e da indústria farmacêutica. A legislação brasileira será ainda analisada sob a óptica das recomendações da Organização Mundial da Saúde a fim de termos parâmetros qualitativos para averiguar a sua qualidade e finalmente analisar a influência da mídia e da política nos resultados obtidos pelos genéricos. As alterações da Legislação mostraram-se um artifício interessante para auxiliar o processo de implantação dos genéricos no Brasil e auxiliaram na obtenção dos resultados positivos obtidos no processo de implantação dos genéricos. / Generics first appeared in the United States in the 1960’s, and they are medications which, by and large, are less expensive than the innovative ones. This is why they have an important role in controlling and reducing medication prices. The lower prices are due to the savings with development and clinical tests, since these investments have already been made by the innovative medication proprietor. In 1999, with the promulgation of Law 9.787, a Generic Medication policy was instituted in Brazil. The new Legislation introduced a series of production innovations and demands, product quality and bioequivalence tests, as well as medication prescriptions, dispensations and pricing practices. Initial contrary reactions and problems occurred, forcing the Government to make corrective regulatory measures. This research project aims at analyzing both the conditions that lead to such measures being taken and their efficacy. The proposal herein is to analyze the changes made to the generic medication Legislation in Brazil between 1999 and 2002, keeping the Brazilian pharmaceutical market characteristics and market reactions as a backdrop and also relying on articles published in the major newspapers and on interviews made with members of both the regulation agency and of the pharmaceutical industry. The Brazilian Legislation will also be analyzed from the angle of the World Health Organization’s recommendations in order to provide qualitative parameters to evaluate its quality and, finally, to analyze media and political influence in the results the generic medications reached. Legislation manipulation revealed to be an interesting device to assist in the generic implanting process in Brazil and helped in reaching the positive results obtained in such process.

Enquanto o mundo discute os esforços para combater as alterações climáticas globais, reconhece-se cada vez mais o papel vital das florestas na manutenção do bem-estar ecológico, social, econômico e cultural. Reafirma-se a importância da definição dos direitos de propriedade (posse e uso) sobre as florestas que pode determinar o seu destino. Para muitos países, as políticas de gestão de florestas combinam vários modos de acesso e gestão como i) áreas protegidas; ii) concessões florestais com critérios de gestão baseados em desempenho; iii) a devolução de áreas de florestas para as comunidades tradicionais e povos indígenas que farão sua gestão.O maior desafio é cumprir o planejado e implantar os diversos modos de gestão florestal para alcançar os objetivos sociais, econômicos e ambientais previstos face à pressão dos interesses econômicos internos e externos. A concessão de florestas é a forma dominante de gestão em quase todos os países da África Central e Ocidental. Ela também é o tipo dominante de exploração de florestas na Ásia (Malásia, Indonésia, Papua-Nova Guiné e Camboja). Na segunda metade dos anos 90, com o forte apoio de projetos de cooperação multilateral e de ONGs internacionais, a Bolívia introduziu a concessão florestal como um modo de conceder direitos de posse e uso sobre florestas. No Brasil, após duas tentativas fracassadas, o governo aprovou sua nova lei de gestão de florestas públicas em 2006. Bolívia e Brasil têm muito em comum em relação aos conflitos fundiários e desafios para impor novas regras relativas à maneira como as florestas podem ser exploradas nas suas regiões amazônicas, principalmente. Este trabalho de investigação centra-se sobre os principais obstáculos enfrentados pelas autoridades florestais bolivianas e brasileiras para implantar as concessões florestais na escala inicialmente prevista. O desenvolvimento do trabalho demandou a mobilização de duas correntes teórico-metodológicas. Por um lado, buscou-se um mapeamento dos modos pelos quais os indivíduos e grupos se apropriam e formulam regras para gerir porções de florestas. Por outro lado, a abordagem teórica da sociologia econômica, mais precisamente os trabalhos de Neil Fligstein e sua abordagem política-cultural, forneceu elementos para avaliar o processo de organização social da produção florestal madeireira nas duas regiões estudadas, que depende de quatro fatores: i) os direitos de propriedade, ii) as estruturas de governança, iii) as regras de troca e iv) as concepções de controle. A abordagem política-cultural considera a participação dos atores sociais como governos, empresas e consumidores, entre outros, e os incentivos para ações de cooperação com base nos laços cognitivos que os ligam. O estudo centrou-se na região amazônica de cada país: nas terras baixas bolivianas e, no Brasil, na região da rodovia Cuiabá-Santarém (BR-163). Isto porque estas regiões são os principais alvos para implantação de concessões florestais. Mostra-se neste estudo que sob um cenário de confusão fundiária, no qual há batalhas por pedaços dos territórios florestais e onde as alianças políticas são forjadas para favorecer outros padrões de uso das terras, a aplicação de concessões florestais em grande escala pode ser inviabilizada ou ficar bastante reduzida. / As the world is preparing to scale up its efforts to combat global climate change, groups are increasingly recognizing the vital role forests play in maintaining ecological, social, economic and cultural well-being. They are beginning to affirm more that forest tenure plays a fundamental role in determining the fate of the worlds forests. In many countries, questions are raised on whether tropical forests should be publicly, commonly or privately owned. For many countries the forest management policies will likely involve a combination of: i) protected areas of sufficient size to provide habitat protection, and in a contiguous pattern; ii) forest concessions with enforceable performance-based management criteria; iii) community forests and community forest concessions managed by communities and indigenous groups. The challenge is to undertake the land use planning commitment and implementation to achieve this in the face of pressure from internal and external interests. Forest concessions of various types are the dominant form of forest tenure in almost all the forest countries of West and Central Africa. They are also the dominant types of forest tenure in Asia (Malaysia, Indonesia, Papua New Guinea, and Cambodia). In South America, Peru and Bolivia introduced forest concession as a possible tenure model in the early 90s with the strong support of international NGOs. In Brazil, after two failed attempts, the government has passed its new forest management law in 2006. Bolivia and Brazil have much in common regarding forest tenure conflicts and challenges to enforce new rules in the forestry sector. Forest concession implementation in these countries has generated many expectations and investments in law changes.This research work focuses on the main barriers faced by Bolivian and Brazilian forest authorities in implementing forest concession on the scale initially planned. The studies required a mapping of the property rights regimes over forest and forest resources as well as a theoretical approach of economic sociology. This approach, which provides elements to evaluate the process of social market construction, is dependent upon four essential factors: property rights, governance structures, rules of exchange and conceptions of control. The political-cultural approach emphasizes the historic perspective of the markets to understand the role of dominant groups and challengers in action arenas. It also considers the participation of social actors like governments, firms and consumers, among others, and their incentives for cooperative actions based on the cognitive ties that bind them. This empiric study focused on each countrys geographically-delimited regions of Amazon: in the Bolivian lowlands region and in the Brazilian Cuiabá-Santarém Highway (namely BR-163). Thats because they are the main targets for forest concession implementation. We show in this study that under a tenure uncertainty scenario, in which there are battles for territorial pieces and political alliances are forged that prefer other land use (and forests uses also) patterns the forest concessions implementation on a large scale will be jeopardized in these territories.

Thesis advisor: Dennis Hale / The right to property is debatably the most fundamental American right, and its breadth and strength is more controversial today than ever before. Thus it is more important than ever to understand that its development was not accidental but has had a long and fascinating history. Such a conception of property was theoretically formed by John Locke, recognized by the Founding Fathers in the U.S. Constitution, and developed through case law. The purpose of this thesis is to show the significance of the idea of private property for America and its citizens, the development and history of that idea through past cases, and the implications of the idea and its development of the future of America. / Thesis (BA) — Boston College, 2007. / Submitted to: Boston College. College of Arts and Sciences. / Discipline: Political Science. / Discipline: College Honors Program.

This doctoral dissertation examines alternative appropriation strategies of intellectual property rights (IPRs), developed and adopted by firms. The study argues that the traditional theoretical approach used to address this issue, based on Teece\'s (1986) seminal paper \"Profiting from technological innovation\", is not suitable for non-trivial circumstances, outside the industrial and manufacturing sector and which are ruled by sui generis IPRs. To understand the IPRs appropriation efforts undertaken by firms within these peculiar environments, this study suggests the integration of the Property Rights Theory with the Resource Based View approach to Strategy. It is based on the perspective of Property Rights Economics, particularly on the work of Barzel (1997), who conceptualizes resource as a bundle of attributes for which property rights may be granted. Resting on this definition, which was extended by Foss and Foss (2005, 2006), who argue that the resource owner\'s ability to extract and sustain value depends on whether he holds secure property rights over the relevant attribute, I propose the unbundling of the resource attributes, as a strategy to appropriate value. To test the theoretical propositions, I developed a double case study on the soybean and cottonseed breeding in Brazil. To place the reader in this empirical setting, a chapter explains the organizational, institutional and competitive dimensions of the seed-breeding sector. I carried out the double case study through semi-structured interviews with breeding firms, complemented by some descriptive statistics of official data. The main finding of this dissertation refers to the idea of accessing economic rights to a resource that can be dismembered in few attributes, to which individual property rights are assigned, and then benefit from the superior protection offered by one single relevant attribute. The dissertation ends with some reflections on the implications of this finding, on a general basis and particularly regarding the future of seed breeding in Brazil. / Esta tese de doutorado examina as estratégias de apropriação de direitos de propriedade intelectual (DPIs), desenvolvidas e adotadas pelas firmas. O estudo argumenta que a abordagem teórica tradicional sobre o assunto, que é baseada no trabalho seminal de Teece (1986) \"Lucrando com a inovação tecnológica\", não é adequada para circunstâncias não triviais, fora do setor industrial e manufatureiro, governadas por DPIs sui generis. Para entender os esforços de apropriação de DPIs realizados pelas firmas inseridas nesses ambientes peculiares, este estudo sugere a integração da Teoria de Direitos de Propriedade com a abordagem estratégica da Visão Baseada em Recursos. Baseia-se na perspectiva da Economia dos Direitos de Propriedade, especialmente no trabalho de Barzel (1997), que conceituou os recursos como uma cesta de atributos para os quais individualmente podem ser atribuídos direitos de propriedade. Partindo dessa definição, que foi estendida por Foss e Foss (2005, 2006), com o argumento de que a habilidade do detentor do recurso em extrair e sustentar valor depende se o mesmo detém direitos de propriedade garantidos sobre o atributo relevante, propõe-se o desmembramento dos atributos dos recursos, como estratégia para apropriação de valor. Com o intuito de testar as proposições teóricas eu desenvolvi um estudo de caso duplo que compreende o melhoramento vegetal de soja e algodão no Brasil. Para situar o leitor neste contexto empírico, um dos capítulos da tese explica as dimensões organizacionais, institucionais e competitivas do setor de melhoramento de sementes. O estudo de caso foi conduzido por meio de entrevistas semiestruturadas com obtentores de plantas e complementado com estatísticas descritivas sobre o tema, a partir de dados oficiais. O principal achado da pesquisa refere-se à ideia de que o acesso aos direitos econômicos de um recurso pode ser desmembrado por meio do acesso à alguns atributos relevantes, para os quais podem ser atribuídos direitos de propriedade individuais. Por sua vez um indivíduo ou firma pode se beneficiar da proteção superior conferida por apenas um único atributo relevante do recurso. A tese se encerra com reflexões gerais sobre as implicações deste achado e particularmente em relação ao futuro do melhoramento de plantas no Brasil.

Cooperativas são organizações econômicas que possuem propriedade dispersa e existem para enfrentar as falhas de mercado. Essas organizações se diferenciam pelo fato de que seus associados são tanto proprietários quanto usuários da estrutura da cooperativa. Nessas organizações o estabelecimento da propriedade ocorre entre os indivíduos e a cooperativa. Esses indivíduos (chamados de donos), assinando o contrato irão compartilhar os direitos formais de propriedade que garantem a ele a autoridade formal sobre a organização. O dono não possui toda a informação sobre o ambiente organizacional e/ou é incapaz de processáIlas eficientemente. Neste cenário, existem incentivos, para fins de eficiência econômica, aos proprietários delegarem parte de seu direito de controle a outro indivíduo para agir em nome deles. Em outras palavras, existem incentivos para se estabelecer uma relação de agência entre o principal (proprietário) e um agente (gestor) que possuirá a autoridade informal para gerenciar a organização. Se a organização é complexa e possui propriedade dispersa, como as cooperativas, a delegação que implica na separação da propriedade e da gestão gera melhores benefícios. Entretanto, no Brasil, especificamente no Estado do Paraná, 67% das cooperativas agropecuárias não desvinculam a propriedade da gestão, visto que há associados participando da gestão. O argumento dessas cooperativas é que a alocação de autoridade informal confere a estes indivíduos poder discricionário para agir em favor de maximizar o benefício coletivo dos outros membros, não agindo oportunisticamente. Uma das formas de se identificar o uso do poder discricionário é o chamado gerenciamento de resultados em que o gestor faz escolhas para modificar o resultado final divulgado pela organização dentro dos parâmetros contábeis aceitos. Portanto, o presente estudo tem como objetivo investigar se os gestores das cooperativas do Estado do Paraná fazem uso de seu poder discricionário, incorrendo em gerenciamento de resultados, para distribuir benefícios a todos os associados por meio da maximização da funçãoIobjetivo da cooperativa, validando o argumento de que um cooperadoIgestor é orientado para maximizar a utilidade coletiva, e não sua própria utilidade. / Cooperatives are economic organizations that have dispersed ownership and are focused in facing the market failures of the economy. Their property rights, characterized by the control right is not linked to the capital equally divided into shares, which gives the associated the right to vote (the \"one man, one vote\" principle). These organizations property occurs with the establishment of a property contract between individuals and the cooperative. These individuals (called owners), signing the contract, will share formal rights of property granting them the formal authority of the organization. The owner does not have all the information in the organization\'s environment and/or is unable to process them efficiently. In this scenario, there are incentives, for the economics efficiency purpose, to the owner delegate part of its control rights to other individuals act on their behalf. In other words, there are incentives to establish an agency relationship between the principal (owner) and an agent (manager) that guides the informal transfer of authority of the first to the second to manage the organization. However, in Brazil, particularly in the state of Paraná, 67% of agricultural cooperatives do not detach the property from the management. The argument is that the allocation of informal authority to another individual gives him a discretionary power to act in favour of maximizing the collective utility, not expropriating wealth of others members. A way to identify the use of the discretionary power by the managers is called earnings management in which the manager makes choices to modify the company final result disclosed within acceptable parameters of accounting standards. Thus, the present study aims to investigate if the managers of the cooperatives which are located in Paraná use their discretionary power to maximize the objective function of the cooperative, validating the argument that a manager who is also a member is oriented to maximize the utility of the cooperative instead his individual utility.