ABSTRACT Recognising that governance is the key to South Africa's future as a global player in the property market, this study explores the protection of shareholders' interests in listed property funds in South Africa. The views of property managers, asset managers and analysts involved in the listed property sector were obtained through in-depth, semi-structured interviews. The main themes highlighted in the data are transparency and disclosure which are a major factor in corporate governance being successful.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Architecture, University of the Witwatersrand, In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science In Building. / This research report analyses the effectiveness of the property development agreement as a tool in managing the risks inherent in the property development process, It incorporates an examination of a sample property development agreement and draws concluslon from market research conducted by means of a questionnaire, In Chapter 1 the property development agreement is defined, The necessity for such an aqreement is examined in Chapter 2 by identifying and describing the various stages of the property development process and by establishing the risks Inherent In each stage. Chapter 3 comprises a critical review of a typical existing development agreement. In this chapter a distinction is drawn between the "standard" clauses and those "essential" clauses which are instrumental in the allocation of the risks in property development. The agreement is then evaluated as a risk management tool and the ancillary topics of establishing those parties protected by and tnose left vulnerable by the agreement, the effects of the power and relative positions of strength of the Signatories and the enforcement of the rights arising out of property development agreements are explored. Finally, this chapter looks at some typical shortcomings of development agreements. The methodology behind the market survey is explained in Chapter 4, the responses of the sample of 50 property industry operators are analysed and concluslons are drawn from the answers to the questions posed. Chapter 5 concludes that property development agreements do exist, are necessary and are useful In creating certainty with regard to rights and obligations flowing from the property development process and that they are valuable in ensuring that risks are allocated as the parties intended they should be. This chapter also contains a checklist of items to be aware of when drafting a property development agreement and details some recommendations for possible further studies in this field. / AC2017

Property taxation as a means of revenue with which to assist municipalities in their local government commitments has been a method of sustainable financial income since the 17th century. South Africa updated its property taxation after the ANC Government came into power in 1994 with the Municipal Property Rates Act 6 of 2004. The act is formulated to levy property rates on all properties with the view to support local governments in their budgets and financial expenditures. The method of assessing the property taxation is stipulated in Section 45 and 46, and also in Section 16. According to Section 45 property values are assessed by means of Computer-Assisted Mass Appraisal Systems (CAMA), which are specifically designed for mass assessments of properties with similar characteristics and within the same location. The CAMA supported Section 45 (3)(b) by including “predetermined bands of property values and the designation of properties to one of those bands on the basis of minimal market-related data”. Section 46 defined market value as a value related to “open market by a willing seller to a willing buyer” at the time of the sale. Section 16 permitted the Minister of Finance to increase property rates after property assessments have been done in order to meet budget shortfalls. This can be done annually or when it is required by the local municipality/council. The present Municipal Property Rates Act, particularly the above-mentioned sections, did not make allowance for the accommodation of unique property developments such as Midstream Estate. This research examines the Municipal Property Rates Act to find out whether Midstream Estate and similar locations have sufficient reason to request that the present system be amended to address their concerns. A study of relevant literature on the South African property tax assessment system supported the study of the Act. A field study was done to contest the Municipal Property Rates Act. The following keywords were used in the field study: need to participate; owner’s satisfaction; selfassessment; owner’s objection. The study confirmed that the present system was inadequate to assess the unique properties situated in Midstream Estate and that there existed a need for the property owners to participate in their own property assessment process. The research was performed in Midstream Estate by way of a field survey questionnaire that was conducted randomly, on a personal basis. Responses and feedback were analysed by means of quantitative description. The results of the field survey proved the hypothesis of this study.

The music and film content providing industry asserts that unauthorised widespread Online Service Provider (OSP) enabled use of their works has played a large part in the factually evident decline in unit sales of the industry’s essential products such as CDs and DVDs, and has thus also allegedly diminished revenue and profits. In this regard, content providing industry legal recourse against OSPs takes two forms. The first is to claim primary copyright infringement, and the second to establish third-party copyright liability for the infringing acts of an OSP’s users. The choice is dictated by the specific facts in individual cases. The latter important and complex case law based category, which applies to a spectrum of OSP connections to infringements, some more direct than others, is specifically treated in this thesis. This thesis examines the, it is argued, inadequate case law based operation of UK third-party copyright liability. By firstly comprehensively studying UK copyright law as it pertains to OSPs, including primary liability as well as exceptions and limitations, UK third-party copyright liability is suitably extrinsically defined. Its intrinsic operation is then analysed. Severe deficiencies having been found and explained in this regard, a basis for reform is sought by conducting a similar examination of US third-party copyright liability, said law being more developed. Thus, a mirrored approach to the preceding UK analysis is taken in the analysis of US copyright law; carefully defining third-party copyright liability and ensuring overall systemic compatibility. Having established the need for reform and having provided a second compatible but more developed source, both strands of third-party copyright liability are compared and contrasted and entirely novel changes to the UK concepts are proposed for legislative adoption. The reformulations allow for apposite future risk analysis by market actors, resulting in greater legal certainty for all parties concerned.

The reconciliation of patents within the Taiwanese Law of Things has received negligible attention from legal scholars. The primary reason for this is the hesitation, by courts and scholars alike, to construct a new property paradigm, referring instead to treat patents under the existing rules on physical things. This dominating stance has had an impact on the manner in which Taiwanese courts adjudicate on the nature of patents, and dealings therewith. The aim of the thesis is to show that this stance is theoretically illogical. The underlying issue is the different classification of patents within the civil and common law systems. The study employs a historical and comparative law methodology in order to inform an intra-law solution to the problem of how to overcome the classification dilemma. It does this by critically analysing the evolution of patent categorisation as personal property in common law and, by employing this foundation, seeks to distinguish the substantial differences in the concept of property between the common and civil law traditions. In light of these differences, and to establish a consolidated way of reconciling patents into the current Taiwanese legal framework, the thesis further analyses the similarity of the property notion under English common law and Taiwanese customary law, both of which are shaped by exclusion rules. The hypothesis is that ownership of land within these two systems, in similar with that of patents, was not an absolute and outright ownership of land governed by inclusion rules, but was instead a freehold which granted intangible rights that could be divided by the duration of the holding. It is suggested that a theoretically more coherent property model can be achieved by adopting this approach, and analogising patents to the tenure systems that existed within both English common law and Taiwanese customary law. To this end, the thesis proposes to contextually rebuild the property model for patents within Taiwanese law by the insertion of five new reform clauses into the Patent Act and the Civil Code.

The Moral Dimensions of Intellectual Property Rights explores the various aspects of IPRs in which moral evaluation and claims play a role. According to R M Hare, moral concepts and reasoning are characterized by the universalization of prescriptions. Universalization links the various dimensions in a way that rationally forces us to revise the moral basis of the various claims we make for, about and of IPRs, and ultimately provides grounds for their reform. The method of reflective equilibrium is focused in the first place on Hare’s meta- ethics, to derive a reformulation which is herein called fundamental prescriptivism. This requires a foundational set of moral principles to work. Our expectation that moral principles and values must serve to guide us, and resolve conflict between us, with objective rational force, provides the basis for adopting such a set of fundamental prescriptions. These sum up in the equal right to freedom and well- being as the ultimate basis for moral evaluation of our institutions. An implication of this right is that property in IPR systems must be balanced with participation rights (moral and legal) of the public to a public domain which allows individuals to have access to, and use, objects of intellectual property. When, in seeking reflective equilibrium, this is applied to the various aspects of IPRs, the result is an exploration of the inter-connectedness of following: justification of IPRs based on this equal right to freedom and well-being; explanation of the function of, and justification for, the presence of moral concepts and terms in national and international IPR rules; the commitments implied by use of these moral ideas for our obligations in respect of the way we enjoy, exploit and enforce our IPRs, and, ultimately, our duty to reform of IPRs in ways that respects the participation rights implied by this principle.

Thesis (Ed.M.)--Boston University / The general aim of this thesis was to test the extent to which the children had learned the property rights concept, and not the extent to which they had been able to integrate their knowledge of these rights with their actual behavior. More specifically it was the purpose of this study to discover (1) whether there was any differentiation between a second grader's understanding of property that was brand new and if property that had been used for a long time, (2) whether a child in the second grade differentiated in his understanding of property which was considered valuable and property which was not considered valuable, (3) whether children in the study differentiated in their understanding of property of different types, (4) whether there was any correlation between knowledge of property rights that second grade children had and nursery school training, number of siblings, status of siblings, Sunday School training, sex, age, and socio-economic status.

Digitized by Kansas Correctional Industries

In the online culture of the 21st century, people worldwide re-create and disseminate works by using existing works. Facilitated by the Internet and digital technologies, 'online re-creations' have become much more common, more widespread, and more sophisticated than ever before. Online re-creations are new works created based on pre-existing copyright protected materials: they are for instance fan fiction, parody, mash-up, fanvid, machinima and virtual world. Due to the difficulties to obtain authorisation from right owners of the original works, online re-creations are potentially infringing the rights of copyright holders. Infringements are usually assumed to occur despite the uncertain legal status and the various nature of online re-creation. Nevertheless copyright and online re-creations are both essential. Re-creations and their online culture are beneficial to individuals and the society at large due to the three principles i.e. creativity, freedom of speech and the public interest. This thesis finds that copyright law that should encourage creative expressions has restrained and discouraged creative re-creations. Besides, the existing copyright exceptions are insufficient and ineffective to safeguard the rights of the re-creators and the interest of the public in accessing and reworking from copyright protected works. It is therefore vital to reconcile the conflicting interests: the exclusive rights of the copyright owners, the rights of re-creators and the interest of the public. To achieve a fair and reasonable balance between the conflicting rights and interests, this thesis proposes that everyone should have a right to use existing works in making creative re-use of such works without infringing copyright. The 'right to re-create' will be granted to the person whose re-creation meets all specified criteria.

The purpose of this introduction is to provide a brief outline of the scope and the progression of the thesis. Since the latter part of the nineteenth century, it has been a well-established principle of real property law in England and Wales that the burden of a positive covenant cannot run directly with freehold land at law or in equity. The fact that a positive covenant cannot run directly with freehold land has for many years been acknowledged to be a major defect of English land law. In Chapter I, the rules which govern the enforceability of freehold covenants are examined. Further, the chapter identifies why the Judges in the nineteenth century decided not to permit the burden of a positive covenant to run with freehold land. Conveyancers use a number of techniques and devices in order to circumvent the aforementioned principle. However, none of them are foolproof. In Chapter II, a number of devices which are used by conveyancers in order to circumvent the aforementioned principle are examined and evaluated. The difficulties which can arise from the present law's failure to provide a satisfactory means whereby positive covenants may be made to run with freehold land are identified in Chapter III. Local authorities possess a number of statutory powers to impose positive covenants on freehold land and to enforce them against successive owners. In Chapter IV, consideration is afforded to some aspects of their powers in this regard. The need to reform the present law has long been recognised. However, despite the fact that several Reports have been made and one draft Bill produced reform has still not been achieved. In Chapter V, the major proposals made for reform in the 1960's and 1970's are considered. Further, reasons are advanced to explain why reform of the law of positive covenants has proved to be so difficult to secure. One of the main consequences of the present law is that the vast majority of flats in England and Wales are held on long leases. The popular preference is for freehold not leasehold ownership. Several common law countries have comprehensive "condominium" legislation making full provision for rights and obligations, etc., in regard to freehold flats. The relevant legislation of New South Wales and Trinidad and Tobago is examined in Chapters VI and VII respectively. One objective of these chapters is to demonstrate that there are viable alternatives to using leasehold schemes for blocks of flats. In 1984, the Law Commission published their Report on Positive and Restrictive Covenants. Chapter VIII deals with this Report and with a number of other relevant recent developments.