Thesis (M.S.P.D.(Prof))--University of Queensland, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references.

published_or_final_version / Philosophy / Master / Master of Philosophy

 In the past 30 years, the inspiring progress of the basic education in China has attracted global attention, not merely for China’s determination of developing national education, but for the workable strategies adopted by the Chinese government to implement the right to education as well. The right to education, a fundamental human right recognized in both global and domestic legal system, is elaborated by United Nations human rights bodies on four key dimensions of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability. The achievement of expanding education to all children for minimum of nine years in China, to a certain extent, is a quantitative triumph of universal access to basic education. However, beyond the statistical victory of enrollment in schools, the increasing disparity of access to good quality education among different social groups, especially between urban and rural children, remains the biggest challenge for China to fully meet the four dimensions of the right to education. The thesis attempts to explore the factors related to policy-making, institutional governance and legal protection, which may result in the gaps in qualitative development of the basic education in China. The study focuses on the development of basic education in China and scrutinizes the two aspects of implementation of the right to education: policy-making and protection of individual right. In the line with a human rights-based approach promoted by United Nations and UNESCO, the thesis evaluates how the Chinese government performs the obligations to promote, protect and fulfill the right to education in terms of availability, accessibility, acceptability, and adaptability. The thesis observes that the fulfillment of right to education in China, despite the remarkable quantitative increase in school enrollment and educational facilities, has not fully complied with the obligations required by the relevant human rights treaties. To meet with universal standards on basic education further, the study concludes that strategies for implementing the right to education in China must shift to qualitative development by applying a rights-based approach to education and an effective framework for the provision and enforcement of legal remedies for the substandard education. These analyses are crucial to inspect the development of Chinese basic education, which both presents China’s successful strategies of promoting national action plans of education, and reveals gaps remained in the enforcement of the right to education in China. The purpose of the research is not only to address the current problems existing in the field of basic education, but also to explore the adoptable measures to further improve the enjoyment of the right to education in China. / published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Doctor of Legal Studies

History may show that in complex social economic systems, should other conditions be controlled, different initial settings of property rights may bring different results. This thesis will test if different initial property rights settings in urban villages have resulted in different forms of housing development. Empirical data collected from three Chinese cities (Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Xi'an) showed that the absence of clear and enforceable private property rights in these urban villages has led to high density housing developments uncontrolled by regulations. As a result, rents collected from these villages were lower, which, in turn, led to the earlier renewal of each development. The underlying mechanism is illustrated using an integrated property rights and transaction cost framework, which is testable against empirical observations. Major contributions of the thesis should include the empirical identification of different existing outcomes, the theoretical explanation of the conditions leading to variations in those outcomes, and the testing of various implications (e.g. the effect of high negotiation costs on high building density, the effect of rent increases on the promotion of legal renewals, and the effect of high policing costs on illegal projects). / published_or_final_version / Real Estate and Construction / Doctoral / Doctor of Philosophy

published_or_final_version / Comparative Asian Studies / Master / Master of Arts

published_or_final_version / abstract / toc / Philosophy / Master / Master of Philosophy

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In 1890, lawyers Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis conceived of a "sacred" right, the right to "be let alone." They argued for this right as a measure of "retreat from the world" for protection of an individual's "inviolate personality." Their argument was born in response to intrusions made possible with technological developments in printing and photography. For over a 100-year period, the concept of privacy has received attention from a multi-disciplinary collection of scholars. Despite this significant attention, however, relatively little consideration has been paid to conceptualizations of privacy in the everyday. My dissertation utilizes the focus group method to access individuals' stories about privacy in everyday lives. The unit of the story is important because it contains rich connotative language, imbued with meaning. My method of analysis is inspired primarily by Michel de Certeau and Clifford Geertz. This analysis reveals four significant themes, all linking back to Warren and Brandeis's original conceptualization in thinking about privacy in the everyday: it is associated with fears, it is considered a defence against surveillance, it is conceived of in metaphorical terms as a protective boundary, and it protects personal information and individual autonomy. This dissertation explores how individuals articulate these themes. It finds that individuals apply the language of space as a framework in which to believe their privacy is protected from surveillance.