Interstate arbitration is commonly viewed as an essentially judicial process, suitable for the resolution of legal questions but inappropriate to deal with “political” issues. This conception, however, arguably flies in the face of both the origins and historical function of interstate arbitration and the complex legal-political nature of most interstate disputes. This paper offers an alternative account of interstate arbitration, which views it as a sui generis hybrid mechanism that combines “legal” and “diplomatic” dimensions to effectively resolve all aspects of interstate disputes. The paper examines this proposed account by analyzing four complex interstate territorial disputes that were submitted to arbitration and assessing the extent to which these two dimensions were recognized and employed, and how this may have affected the resolution of the disputes. Based on this analysis, the paper offers a two-dimensional operative framework intended to guide states and arbitrators in the resolution of future complex interstate disputes.

<p>The main aim of the research was to determine the viability of retaliation as a trade remedy under the Dispute Settlement Understanding. It was to establish whether retaliation as a remedy is beneficial to the entire WTO membership and system. The specific objectives were: to examine the feasibility of damages as an alternative remedy to retaliation / to determine whether there is a need to revise the Dispute Settlement Understanding, for it to adopt a more development friendly approach to dispute resolution / to make recommendations regarding the improvement of the Dispute Settlement Understanding.</p>

<p>Aims of the research paper is to examine the legal framework&nbsp / of implemantation and enforcement of DSB recommendations and rulings and to investigate the trend of non-compliance with BSD recommendations and rulings where complianant&nbsp / &nbsp / is a developing country.</p>

Abstract Peri-urban areas experience many land related problems and disputes because of rural-urban migration and increasing demand in land. The purpose of this thesis is to identify and describe the land problems and their related disputes that exist in two peri-urban areas surrounding the capital of Botswana, Gaborone. Two land boards administering these areas are studied in order to draw conclusions if there are any improvements that can be made to make the administration of land more effective.   The methods used in this thesis include: a literature review on previous made research to gain sufficient background and knowledge in the subject and a multiple case study to identify the most occurring land problems and how these are handled in the villages of Mogoditshane and Tlokweng. The case study included qualitative interviews with land board officers and experts within the studied subject.   The result from the literature review and the case studies shows similar result when it comes to land problems faced in Mogoditshane and Tlokweng. Common problems such as illegal occupations and multiple transfers lead to disputes over the right to land. The administration of handling these problems differ between the studied land boards as well as the approaches to resolving disputes that arises. For instance in Tlokweng they patrol the village in order to reveal illegal occupations. In the same land board they have also adopted the approach with alternative dispute resolution to reduce number of disputes entering the legal process.   It seems that one of the main causes for the land problems that occur in these areas is poor record keeping. Besides the improvements regarding record keeping, that is already in progress, this study has reached the conclusion that there are several measures that can be taken to make the management of land problems and related disputes more effective. The problem with shortage of land, which is another cause for land problems, could be reduced by an effective and unanimous land allocation process. Further we believe that by training both officers and board members in alternative dispute resolution methods and adopting an approach to try to resolve disputes before becoming a legal matter, will reduce costs as well as save time in the land administration.

The author attended Independent Assessment Process (IAP) hearings as part of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement. Her experience in IAP hearings raised questions about our approach, as Canadians, to historical wrongs, especially those, like loss of language and culture, which fall outside of the purview of criminal and tort-law. This thesis explores the legal, social, and political dispute resolution mechanisms available in Canada to address harms as they have been applied to the Indian Residential Schools Legacy. It finds that the approach to date has been limited by the assumptions inherent in those institutions. The author proposes that Canadians, as a society, need to reframe and restart our discussion about harms and reparations using a framework of “responsibility”, and provides some possible mechanisms to begin that discussion. / Graduate / mhough@uvic.ca

Biocatalysis and enzyme technology represent significant research topics of contemporary biotechnology. The immobilisation of these catalysts on or in static supports serves the purpose of transforming the catalyst into a particle that can be handled through effortless mechanical operations, while the entrapment within a membrane or capsule leads to the restraint of the enzyme to a distinct space. This confinement leads to a catalyst with a superior stability, and cell durability under reaction conditions. Epoxide hydrolase is a widely available co-factor independent enzyme, which is known to have remarkable chemio-, regio- and stereoselectivity for a wide range of substrates. Recently it was found that certain yeasts, including Rhodosporidium toruloides, contain this enzyme and are able to enantioselectively catalyse certain hydrolysis reactions. The objective of this project was four-sided: a) to immobilise Rhodospridium toruloides in an optimised immobilisation matrix (calcium alginate beads), for the kinetic resolution of 1.2- epoxyoctane in order to obtain an optically pure epoxide and its corresponding vicinal diol, b) to determine the effect of immobilisation on activity as well as stability of the enzyme and gain better understanding of the parameters that influence enzyme activity in a support, c) to determine the effect of formulation parameters on some of the bead characteristics and, d) to gain some insight in the distribution of epoxide and diol in the water and bead phases and the formulation parameters that have an effect thereon. Rhodospridium toruloides was immobilised in calcium alginate beads consisting of different combinations of alginate and CaCl2 concentrations. Best results were obtained with a combination of 0,5 % (m/v) alginate and 0,2 M CaC12. The immobilised cells exhibited lower initial activity. but more than 40 times the residual activity of that of the free cells after a 12-hour storage period. Both the immobilised and free cells exhibited an increase in reaction rate (V) with an increase in substrate concentration. An increase in the alginate concentration lead to the formation of smaller beads, but a decrease in enzume activity, while an increase in the CaCl2 solution concentration had no effect on bead diameter or enzyme activity. Epoxide diffused preferentially into the beads (± 96 %), and the diol into the water phase, which leads to the natural separation of the epoxide and the diol. The CaCl2 concentration affected epoxide diffusion with no effect on diol diffusion, which opens up the possibility to regulate the diffusion of epoxide into the beads. Although only a very small fraction of the epoxide inside the beads could be extracted, the alginate proved to be chirally selective for the (R)-epoxide, improving the reaction efficiency by increasing the % ee, of the epoxide extracted from the beads between 26 % and 43 %. The possibility to develop a system where the product is formed, purified and concentrated in a one-step reaction by extracting the product from the bead phase was clearly demonstrated. / Thesis (M.Sc. (Pharm.) (Pharmaceutical Chemistry))--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003.

A phenomenon as complex as protein folding requires a complex model to approximate it. This thesis presents a bottom-up approach for building complex probabilistic models of protein secondary structure by incorporating the multiple information sources which we call experts. Expert opinions are represented by probability distributions over the set of possible structures. Bayesian treatment of a group of experts results in a consensus opinion that combines the experts' probability distributions using the operators of normalized product, quotient and exponentiation. The expression of this consensus opinion simplifiesto a product of the expert opinions with two assumptions: (1) balanced training of experts, i. e. , uniform prior probability over all structures, and (2) conditional independence between expert opinions,given the structure. This research also studies how Markov chains and hidden Markov models may be used to represent expert opinion. Closure properties areproven, and construction algorithms are given for product of hidden Markov models, and product, quotient and exponentiation of Markovchains. Algorithms for extracting single-structure predictions from these models are also given. Current product-of-experts approaches in machine learning are top-down modeling strategies that assume expert independence, and require simultaneous training of all experts. This research describes a bottom-up modeling strategy that can incorporate conditionally dependent experts, and assumes separately trained experts.

This research was focused on the study of the polymer dormant radical systems, species containing free radical structures that have longer lifetimes and greater stability than radicals in general. In order to understand the nature and reactivity of the dormant radicals, polymeric systems capable of producing dormant free radicals were synthesised. In addition, the use of these novel polymeric materials in a range of applications were studied. Those applications exploited the nature of the dormant radical groups and included controlled modifications in the polymeric structure, heterogeneous catalysis and chromatographic separations.

<p> In today&rsquo;s world, people from various cultures interact on a daily basis on a number of occasions. During these intercultural encounters, conflicts often arise. Intercessors are needed to help people navigate these types of disagreements. Mediators are considered some of these peacekeepers. This thesis engaged with mediators at a mediation center in the Midwestern United States in order to understand what strategies seemed most effective. </p><p> I examined the research that scholars have conducted regarding building rapport through utilizing respect and face issues, as well as nonverbal behavior. In addition, I explored the connection between the understanding of these factors and intercultural competence and intercultural conflict competence. </p><p> The purpose of this thesis was to see how these mediators understood and valued respect and face issues, including nonverbal behavior, when building rapport with parties in mediations. These mediators were engaged in two manners, via survey and interview questions. The intercultural competence of the mediators in these domains was also explored. </p><p> The results of the research in this thesis showed how the mediators were skilled in some areas, such as in rapport building and respect issues. It further revealed that they were in need of some skills for their toolbox, such as training on face issues and nonverbal behavior, including silence, tone of voice, and eye contact. Detailed recommendations for the mediators are provided. Future research is encouraged: A group of mediators that have exhibited intercultural competence should be selected in order to test their intercultural conflict competence.</p>

This research examines faith-based mediators and their usage of mediation strategies, in relation to durability of peace agreements and it is guided by the following research question; Why do some faith-based mediators succeed to aid the creation of durable peace, while others do not? In order to find an answer to this question a hypothesis, suggesting that faith-based mediators applying the fostering, rather than the forcing, strategy will be more successful, is tested. This hypothesis mirrors the causal logic, suggesting that faith-based mediators have the potential to contribute to the creation of durable peace agreements, through the usage of facilitative and formulative techniques. The methodological design makes use of tools provided by Mills Method of Difference and Structured Focused Comparison. These tools aid the analysis of faith-based mediation in Uganda and Sierra Leone. The findings indicate that the application of the fostering strategy has a positive effect in relation to the process of creating durable peace agreements. However, this positive effect comes with one condition, the faith-based mediators have to be influential in relation to the peace process.