published_or_final_version / Law / Master / Master of Laws

Internet privacy lacks transparency, choice, quantifiability, and accountability, especially, as the deployment of machine learning technologies becomes mainstream. However, these technologies can be both privacy-invasive as well as privacy-protective. This dissertation advances the thesis that machine learning can be used for purposes of improving Internet privacy. Starting with a case study that shows how the potential of a social network to learn ethnicity and gender of its users from geotags can be estimated, various strands of machine learning technologies to further privacy are explored. While the quantification of privacy is the subject of well-known privacy metrics, such as k-anonymity or differential privacy, I discuss how some of those metrics can be leveraged in tandem with machine learning algorithms for purposes of quantifying the privacy-invasiveness of data collection practices. Further, I demonstrate how the current notice-and-choice paradigm can be realized by automatic machine learning privacy policy analysis. The implemented system notifies users efficiently and accurately on applicable data practices. Further, by analyzing software data flows users are enabled to compare actual to described data practices and regulators can enforce those at scale. The emerging cross-device tracking practices of ad networks, analytics companies, and others can be supplemented by machine learning technologies as well to notify users of privacy practices across devices and give them the choice they are entitled to by law. Ultimately, cross-device tracking is a harbinger of the emerging Internet of Things, for which I envision intelligent personal assistants that help users navigating through the increasing complexity of privacy notices and choices.

Thesis (LLM. (Labour Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2012 / The amendment of section 30I (3) of the Pension Funds Act No.24 of 1956 by the provisions of section 30I of the Pension Funds Amendment Act No.11 of 2007 poses a serious threat to the constitutional right to social security (Section 27 (1) (c) of the Constitution). The amendment places this challenge on this right because it places some form of time-barring on the member of the fund or the complainant (his or her dependent) when lodging a pension funds complaint after a prescribed time has elapsed (three years) and the Adjudicator will no longer have no powers to condone such a late referral despite good cause shown and prospects of success on the part of the complainant. The said amendment has placed the poor more especially those in the rural areas in a disadvantageous position, because most of them are illiterate and not aware of their pension law rights. This means that even though they are entitled to the pension funds benefits, they cannot access it if they lodged their complaint outside the three-year period.

Thesis (LLM> (Labour Law)) -- University og Limpopo, 2013 / The South African government has paid compensation in a form of special pension to individuals who have been exposed to certain types of hardship and suffering caused by the governments or their predecessors. This compensation is described as ‘the appreciation or sense of guilty of society towards those people on whom the government has rightfully or wrongfully and at any rate disproportionally inflicted damage’. Government have been prepared to pay compensation to the following persons: former enemies, victims of war, victims of harmful compulsory vaccination measures, persons who had sacrificed their jobs and education in the process of overturning oppressive governments establishing democratic government; and persons whose basic human rights had been violated by governments or their predecessors. These persons have sacrificed their lives either in exile or within South Africa fighting for South Africa to be democratic. These persons must prove that they served their respective political organisations for a period of five years or above or they were banished or restricted in certain area or imprisoned or sentenced.

Thesis (LLM. (Labour Law)) -- University of Limpopo, 2013 / The South African government has paid compensation in a form of special pension to individuals who have been exposed to certain types of hardship and suffering caused by the governments or their predecessors. This compensation is described as ‘the appreciation or sense of guilty of society towards those people on whom the government has rightfully or wrongfully and at any rate disproportionally inflicted damage’. Government have been prepared to pay compensation to the following persons: former enemies, victims of war, victims of harmful compulsory vaccination measures, persons who had sacrificed their jobs and education in the process of overturning oppressive governments establishing democratic government; and persons whose basic human rights had been violated by governments or their predecessors. These persons have sacrificed their lives either in exile or within South Africa fighting for South Africa to be democratic. These persons must prove that they served their respective political organisations for a period of five years or above or they were banished or restricted in certain area or imprisoned or sentenced.

This thesis investigates the law of pledging as presented in the early Irish laws and draws connections to its relations within the overall system of security. At the centre of my research stands the question what pledges Irish law recognised and how their application was determined, so as to provide a paradigm for the law of pledging in its entirety. A pledge is usually a movable, material object of symbolic and economic worth that is given to another person as a security deposit for an outstanding obligation. The main findings of this thesis are a first paradigm of the law of pledging and a methodological and contextual categorisation of all types of pledges that opens doors for future research into property law. The combined discussion of pledges, hostages and sureties offers the reader insight into a triple method of security and its differences. Moreover, the close relationship between given pledges and distrained pledges is unravelled for the first time. Of further note is the comparative investigation into pledging. Therein, the reader is presented with how pledges are used in Welsh, Salic, Lombard, Visigothic, and Burgundian law. The objective is to offer the reader a view into the possibilities of pledging and to provide a framework against which the Irish evidence can be probed, which reveals how sophisticated and attentive to detail the Irish laws were. Finally, a translation of the primary source text 'Bretha im Fuillemu Gell' (Judgements concerning Pledge-interests) is made available to the reader in the Appendix.

The South African Constitution in section 27(1)(c) obligates the state to develop a comprehensive social security system. It affirms the universal right to access to social security, including appropriate social assistance for those unable to support themselves and their dependants. It orders the state to take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of these rights. The underlying normative commitment of social security is the improvement of the quality of life of the population by promoting economic or material equality. Social security ensures that all citizens have a stake in society and that each individual has an incentive to contribute to the development of the commonwealth. It plays a crucial role in the lives of communities and families viewed in the context of social transfers which provide broader development objectives and tackles income poverty transfers. The objectives of this study are threefold. Firstly, it examines the extension of social assistance coverage to the indigents in South Africa. Secondly, it looks at the legal mechanisms employed by courts and government in order to improve the social security rights of the poor in South Africa. Thirdly, the research investigates the possible reform and trends in India and Brazil with the aim of improving South Africa’s system of social security. For the avoidance of doubt, the law evaluated in this work is at 15 September 2015. / Jurisprudence / LL. D.

The main theme of this thesis is to capture formation and development of the social security system that provides hedging of individuals against illness, invalidity and old age. The first modern form of the social security within the area of Czech state appeared at the end of 18th century in the form of so called Theresian and Josephinian pension normals. These normals were designed to secure retired state officers against poverty. In the late 19th century were adopted two important norms - law concerning accident insurance and law about sickness insurance for workers. Pension insurance program for workers, the largest social group, was established as late as 1924. The Social security system was split among several offices, also insufficiently hedged by steady incomes in wage-workers and miners insurance; as a consequence it led to indebtedness of the system. During the occupation period, the financial funds were devaluated, appeared some organization changes and the new way of conviction about suitability of whole-society pension and sickness insurance was applied. Modern law about national insurance from year 1948 was canceled during the totality era. The reason was to apply soviet model of social security. This state remained in existence with cosmetics changes till 1989. During the development of the...

Au cours du 20e siècle, le nombre de sûretés a fortement augmenté, ce qui conduit à analyser les rapports qu’elles entretiennent et à s’interroger sur leur avenir. Selon une approche classique, les sûretés-modèles – le cautionnement, le gage et l’hypothèque – seraient en crise et subiraient la concurrence de nouvelles sûretés – les sûretés de substitution, lesquelles auraient vocation, à terme, à bénéficier d’un monopole. Cette analyse repose toutefois sur des postulats discutables. Elle doit donc être envisagée sous un autre angle.Il convient tout d’abord de déterminer si le législateur et la jurisprudence sont favorables à l’existence d’une concurrence. L’analyse est d’ordre politique. Elle révèle une réticence à l’encontre de la concurrence : concernant les sûretés personnelles, la concurrence est refusée, le cautionnement est protégé ; concernant les sûretés réelles, une concurrence existe, mais elle est tenue en échec, de telle sorte que les sûretés-modèles ne sont pas menacées.Il convient ensuite de comparer les caractéristiques essentielles des sûretés, afin de déterminer si elles sont substituables. L’analyse est d’ordre technique et ne permet pas davantage de caractériser l’existence d’une concurrence : entre les techniques des sûretés personnelles, elle est impossible soit parce que les techniques ne sont pas substituables soit parce qu’une sûreté unique a été créée ; entre les techniques sûretés réelles, les réformes ont érodé les distinctions entre ces dernières, la concurrence est donc en voie de disparition.Le droit des sûretés est donc hostile à la concurrence ; la survie des sûretés-modèles n’est pas menacée. / During 20th century, number of securities increased. The question then arises of the relations of such securities between them and their future. According to a classical approach, security-models -guarantee, pledge and mortgage – would be in crisis and compete with new securities – securities of substitution -, which are destined at the end to benefit from a monopoly. However, this analysis is based on questionable postulates; the question must then be considered in another way.It is firstly necessary to determine if lawmaker and jurisprudence are favorable to the existence of this competition. The question is political. It reveals the reluctance of this competition for security law : regarding real securities, a competition does exist, but it is kept at bay, so that security-models are not threatened.It is then necessary to compare the essential characteristics of securities to determine if they are substitutable. It is a technical question. It does not allow more to characterize the existence of a competition : it is impossible between the techniques of personal securities, whether because such techniques are not substitutable, or because only one security has been created; between the techniques of real securities, reforms erode the distinctions between them, the competition is therefore disappearing.Security law is therefore opposed to any competition ; the survival of security-model is not threatened.

Equal treatment and prohibition of discrimination in employment relations and social security systems in Czech and European law Abstract The dissertation deals with equal treatment and prohibition of discrimination in employment relations and social security systems in Czech and European law. In the introductory section the historical context of anchoring the principle of equality into the legal regulation is outlined. The attention is paid on one hand to the social changes in the first half of the 20th century, which led to the protection of equality in Europe, and on the other to the legislative initiatives and the role of justice in the second half of the 20th century. The second part explains the concepts of equality, discrimination, employment relations and social security systems, which are the central motifs of the dissertation. It analyses how these concepts were viewed in the past, how they evolved, and in what forms and manifestations we can come across them today. The third part introduces the Czech and European legislation, which constitute the current Anti-Discrimination law. Emphasis is placed on the assessment of the Czech Anti- Discrimination Act with regard to its almost ten years of effectiveness in the Czech legal order. The author concludes that despite the facts that the protection...