The aim of this study was to examine the District Court´s argumentations about the children´s best interests in rulings regarding custody of children, and to analyse the argumentation from a gender perspective. Rulings from the District Court from 2012 have been the basis for this study and a qualitative method has been used, argumentations analysis. The study shows that cooperative problems between the parents are the main reason why the District Court finds joint custody to be excluded. There are also argumentation regarding parent´s ability to ensure the children’s safety. The presumption of joint custody is known to be emphatic in Swedish law and in those cases the District Court finds it in the best interest of the child for the joint custody to remain, the parents still have problems cooperating but not sufficiently to repeal the importance of both parents in the child´s life. In the rulings leading up to both joint and sole custody conceptions of female and male attributes can be found, and differences regarding what´s considered good and bad attributes. The study shows differences in how we expect women and men to be parents. Conceptions of class- and ethnicity however, are rarer. The analysis also shows views of parenthood as being gender complementary, where the father´s presence is seen as a complement to the mother´s main caring responsibility. Finally, the study shows a guiding from the District Court to the fathers about getting them more involved in their children´s life, and of the importance of the Social Services Custody Report regarding the verdict.

The purpose of this paper is to determine the established law and make researches into non-institutional compulsory care (“mellantvång”) paragraph 22 The Care of Young Persons (Special Provisions) Act (from now on called LVU) and examine whether the administration of the law is in harmony with the best interests of the child. This paper combines two methods : traditional judicial method and a social science method. In the juridical part the sources of law have been studied and in the social sciences part semi-structured interviews have been conducted with five respondents. The theoretical framework consists of ideas and theories about the best interests of the child, a concept which is one of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child's core principles. This study shows that the legislator has identified a problem and an existing need and found a solution to this by introducing a non-institutional compulsory care, paragraph 22 LVU. The problem is that Social Services do not make use of the restraint. Only 30 decisions under § 22 LVU are taken annually in Sweden. For the legal rights of the individual and the best interests of the child, the Social Services are required to make decisions under this article instead of the current use of the informal threat of non-institutional compulsory care.

This research assessed the seasonal effects of contrasting tillage and crop rotation systems on soil ammonia oxidizing bacteria (AOB) and archaea (AOA). Four different cropping systems under till and no-till were analyzed in a 30 year-old agricultural field trial. Samples were collected during the 2010 growing season at times corresponding with agronomic events. Nucleic acids were preserved in the field and subsequently analyzed by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reactions (qPCR). Tillage decreased AOB activity and abundance in the plow layer (0-15 cm) immediately after fall moldboard plow events, but observed AOB dynamics at other times suggest tillage had a long-term distribution effect across depth (0-30 cm). AOA abundance was significantly greater in no-till plots at all times indicating tillage had longer-term effects on these communities. Crop rotation had minimal effect on AOB and AOA, but there was a noted yield advantage for corn following wheat, regardless of tillage treatment. / OMAFRA Highly Qualified Personnel Program, NSERC

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This thesis argues that the management of environmental impacts has many analogies with the management of risk and practice can be improved by using ideas, concepts and principles found in the management of risk in other spheres of human activity. An overview of the challenges faced by environmental impact practitioners in New Zealand and reinforcement of its importance to the sustainable management of natural and physical resources under New Zealand's Resource Management Act is provided. Key risk management ideas, concepts and principles drawn from a variety of sources are listed and parallels drawn between these and existing environmental impact assessment practice in New Zealand. From this list a number are selected and opportunities for improving environmental impact assessment practice are explored. A number of opportunities are identified, starting with the need for a common language and methodology amongst practitioners. Categorisation of impacts to assist transparency of analysis and expression using frequency-consequence curves to aid and promote consistency of decision-making are further areas of opportunity. Risk management has several well-developed techniques for dealing with uncertainty and selection of assessment endpoints. The connection between communication of risk and public perception is an area with significant potential for communication about environmental impacts. Challenges with effective public participation in environmental decision-making are backgrounded and risk management practised in two high profile areas examined for opportunity for improved practice. Neither appears to offer opportunity for improvement in key decision-making areas. A relatively new indicator approach towards risk assessment called "healthy systems method" appears to have significant potential for cost-effective analysis of systems of various types and at various levels. This thesis identifies a number of other areas of risk management requiring further research to determine potential for achieving better practice in environmental impact assessment.

Bas van Fraassen argues that inference to the best explanation (IBE) is a probabilistically incoherent rule (1989). Anyone following IBE is open to being Dutch booked. According to one of the most interesting and popular responses to van Fraassen’s argument, van Fraassen misrepresents IBE in probabilistic terms. With the proper probabilistic representation, it is claimed, IBE is not inconsistent with Bayesian rationality constraints. Building on the work of IBE’s proponents, I first propose a minimal account of what makes one explanation better than another. I then argue that, even on this minimal account, the alternative probabilistic model of IBE does not work, and hence fails to successfully respond to van Fraassen’s argument.

Barnets bästa beskrivs av forskare som ett svårdefinierat begrepp. Trots detta är begreppet lagstadgat och ska vara avgörande för alla beslut kring vårdnad, boende och umgänge. Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka Gävle tingsrätts diskussion av barnets bästa i vårdnads-, boende- och umgängesdomar under åren 1992, 2002 och 2012 samt om det skett någon förändring över tid. En form av textanalys användes för att analysera empirin som sedan studerades med socialkonstruktionistisk och rättssociologisk teori. Det mest framträdande resultatet var att tingsrättens diskussion kring barnets bästa oftast skett indirekt, där ingen direkt motivering har gjorts huruvida en viss situation är till barnets bästa eller inte. Emellertid har direkta referenser till begreppet barnets bästa ökat, främst i domarna från år 2012. Resultatet kan antas härröra ur de reformer som gjorts i föräldrabalken år 2006. En annan viktig slutsats vi kommit fram till rör hur barnets bästa alltid verkar vara situationsbundet. / The child's best interest is described by researchers as elusive. Despite this, the concept is statutory and should be essential to decisions regarding custody, residence and contact. The purpose of this study was to inquire Gävle district court's discussion of the child's best interest in custody, residence and contact judgments in 1992, 2002 and 2012, and to study whether the arguing changed over time. Text analysis was applied to analyze data which then was studied by perspectives of socialconstructionism and sociology of law. A prominent result was that the district court's discussion of the child’s best interest is usually made indirectly. However, direct references to the concept of the child’s best interest increased, mainly in the judgments from 2012. This result might derive from the reforms made in the Swedish Parental Code in 2006. Another important conclusion we have come to concern is that the child’s best interest seem to be inconstant.

This thesis explores the constitutional right to receive basic education in the language of choice. This fundamental human right imposes a duty on the state to provide children with education in the language of their choice whenever reasonably practicable. It is not a matter of whether the state has to fulfil section 29(2) of the Constitution, but rather how to give effect to this provision. The right to receive basic education in the language of your choice is however, qualified by the specific internal limitation that provides that the right is subject to the condition that provision of education in the preferred language has to be reasonably practicable. Section 36, the limitation clause, is also a measure that can be used to limit this right. The aim of this paper is to contextually interpret the fundamental right to receive education in the language of one’s choice and to weigh up the intent of the provision to the provision’s actual result. All relevant factors will be taken into consideration to examine the possibility of limiting the right to receive instruction in the language of choice to comply with the purpose of education and the best interests of the child. / Thesis (LL.M. (Comparative Child Law))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2010.

Problem – Companies are increasingly focusing on sustainability issues in response to internal and external pressure. Research on sustainable performance of focal companies is vast; however there is a lack of guidelines for managing sustainability in extended supply chains. Scholars claim a need for additional research on intra- and inter-organizational diffusion of best sustainable practices. Besides, the outcomes of sustainable sourcing practices are still uncertain. The gap between potential benefits of sustainable sourcing and actual performance is attributed to lack of capabilities, instruments, and efficient processes. Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore existing sustainable sourcing practices which are used by leading multinational companies. Based on the obtained knowledge we aim to develop a framework that will suite as a guideline for enforcing sustainable sourcing practices. Method – The research has been conducted through the method of grounded theory, enabling the researchers to constructively interpret data from documentary primary data and semi-structured interviews. This approach was utilized in order to explore what are the most common practices of managing sustainable sourcing applied by the companies awarded as Industry leaders by the Dow Jones Sustainability Index. Conclusion We found that a commonly accepted approach towards managing and enforcing sustainable sourcing is absent both in theoretical discourse and practice. However, the most frequently mentioned tools and approaches were defined. They include the adoption of suppliers’ code of conduct, establishment of dedicated sustainability departments, procurement personnel training, suppliers’ capability building, risk assessment and categorization of suppliers, IT platforms for information sharing, supplier self-assessment, audit, joint projects with suppliers, meetings and conferences, and suppliers’ scorecards. Finally, we developed a Sustainable Sourcing Enforcement framework which could serve as a guideline to enforce supplier’s commitment to act sustainably. The framework consists of five chronologically connected pillars: Objectives alignment, Commitment creation, Supplier selection, Ongoing development and Work with stakeholders.