Includes abstract / Includes bibliographical references. / This thesis adds to the body of literature exploring the policy principles of equity and neutrality, as applied in the context of methods relieving international double taxation and in the context of a recently opened and developing economy.

Includes bibliographical references. / This dissertation investigates the way courts have interpreted the limited grounds of review, in particular ‘gross irregularity’, evaluating the test for review, and assessing the extent to which they have been consistent in their approach to review.

This work has examined the implication the proliferation of identical economic groupings portends for the east and southern Africa region. The thrust of the study here has been to interface and interrogate the incidence of the configuration of integration regimes in the east and southern Africa region. The work has investigated the question as to whether the proliferation of trade regimes has prepared a fertile ground for greater and deeper integration in the region. The thesis has also interrogated the proposition that such proliferation is the very antithesis of the desired goal to promote trade harmonization and reach out for deeper integration in the region. Importantly this work has ventured to query the confluence of identical trade regimes in view of the compatibility imperative as enshrined in the WTO legal framework. We have examined the implication this configuration of integration regimes portends for the WTO disciplines. This work commenced with an extensive examination of current works on regional integration regimes in general and integration initiatives within the east and southern Africa region in particular. The interrogation exercise was premised on works, both economic surveys and legal treatises undertaken on the recently concluded EU-SA free trade agreement, the SADC Trade Protocol, the COMESA Treaty and the Cotonou Agreement. The actual texts of these instruments form the bulk of the sources. We note that without exception, significant and to that extent costly restructuring programs will have to be undertaken by States in the east and southern Africa region in response to the disruptive EU-SA trade partnership. We have established that these integration regime scores well on the imperative of WTO compatibility. We gather that the present WTO structures are not malleable enough for the cash strapped sub-Saharan Africa trade regimes to reconfigure themselves in such a way as to deepen the integration agenda. We have urged for more flexibility in the WTO framework on this score to augment integration processes currently crowding the regional landscape.

In June 2004 the Department of Trade and Industry embarked on a corporate law reform process which culminated in the enactment of the Companies Act 71 2008. One of the key objectives of the reform process was to provide flexibility in the formation and management of companies. As part of this goal, and by the use of the concept of alterable and unalterable provisions, the new Act unravelled some shareholder protective mechanisms provided for under the old Companies Act 61 of 1973. At the same time, it conferred increased powers on the board of directors of a company. These changes affect the power dynamic between shareholders and the board of directors within the company. Given the significant role of directors within the company, these changes give rise to concerns about shareholder protection, especially in the light of the conduct of directors in corporate scandals of the recent past. The objective of this thesis is to show where there has been a shift in the balance of power between shareholders and the board of directors and, how this shift affects shareholder protection and, whether the shift of power has been balanced by increased shareholder protection.

This dissertation examines Tanzania’s legal framework in the light of the modern information and communication technologies, especially the Internet and e-commerce. The main goal is to assess the adequacy of the existing law and to provide recommendations for reforms that will reflect the borderless nature of e-contracts. These reforms must ensure the certainty and predictability needed for successful cross-border commerce. Achievement of these aims will build confidence and trust on the part of business entities and consumers, and, in addition, will enhance free trade, strengthen the growing market-based economy, and integrate Tanzania into the global economy.

a) Overview The question to be answered in this dissertation is whether the National Credit Act 34 of 2005 (the NCA), promotes or impedes the sustainable growth of the South African economy. This question will be answered through exploring the importance of the contribution made by small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) to the economy. This research question is premised on the findings in structural change theory of development economics.1 This theory advances the view that for a developing country to obtain sustainable growth of its economy there needs to be a decline in the number of microenterprises over a period of years and an increase in the number small and medium enterprises (SMEs). 2 This dissertation interrogates whether the NCA supports this kind of sustainable growth of the South African economy. The hypothesis proposes that the NCA impedes the sustainable economic development of South Africa. In support of this, I have examined the NCA and the protection that it affords to SMEs in South Africa. Specifically, I have examined the extent to which the NCA permits lending to SMEs by financiers, in contrast to the permission given to financiers to lend to microenterprises. In addition, I have examined the extent to which the NCA protects SME borrowers in cases where the SME qualifies for a loan, so bringing it within the provisions of NCA. This is then contrasted with the protection extended by the provisions of the NCA to microenterprises. In this investigation, I have undertaken a review of case law in South Africa to substantiate my view that the NCA inhibits sustainable growth of the South African economy. The decisions raise some important considerations, including problems caused by the concept of separate legal personality of juristic persons run by an individual in the context of borrowing, the extent to which credit guarantees offered by these individual owners should be legally enforceable and the ambiguity of developmental loans envisaged by the NCA. To address these problems, I have looked to foreign jurisprudence, especially the legal protection offered to SMEs in Australia when taking out a loan. A comparison between South African law and Australian law suggests how access to credit by SMEs and microenterprises can be improved to ensure sustainable economic growth of the economy. b) Research Methodology A doctrinal, desktop-based research method is used. The main documentary data analysed to answer the research question is primary legislation, specifically the NCA and the Usury Act 73 of 1968. Secondary sources, such as commentaries and publications by various researchers will be explored. Further documentary data will include empirical data collected in secondary sources. Other persuasive legal texts will be utilised, such as the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 (Cth) (the ASIC), The Australian National Consumer Credit Protection Act 2009 (the ACCPA) as well as the Australian Code of Banking Practice (the COBP) c) Limitations to the Study The main limitation to this dissertation has been determining the exact number of SMMEs that exist in South Africa. Studies so far undertaken have used different methodologies and research strategies and their objectives may have differed to the objectives of this paper.3 Despite the growing amount of literature and research that is being conducted regarding SMMEs, there is still very little known about them. This is largely a result of the high number of unregistered SMMEs that exist. A further limitation on the research is that each survey contains different definitions of small, micro and medium business. For example, the South African General Entrepreneurial Monitor (GEM) measures different types of entrepreneurship and not the number of businesses to enable international comparisons. In contrast the department of trade and industry’s (DTI) definition of small business is used to determine the number of small businesses in South Africa; and this is the definition used in the National Small Business Act 102 of 1996 (the Small Business Act).

Includes abstract. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 288-340). / Mediation is not a novel process in South Africa. It was used as the primary method of dispute resolution in some traditional pre-indusrial societies. Corporate South Africa is beset by conflict and urgently requires processes such as mediation which dignify and empower participants to tackle commercial conflict at source. Statutes, case law, books, journals and numerous other publications were reviewed in order to assess the relevant issues in the development of commercial mediation and investigate how this process could become a viable alternative to arbitration and the court system in South Africa. Empirical research gleaned from interviews conducted in Cape Town and Johannesubrg reflects the experience of those who currently act as commercial mediators. The ultimate aim of this process is to reach agreement. In light of this extensive jurisprudence that has developed in this area in othe jurisdictions, careful drafting of agreements can go a long away in avoiding enforcement complications. The conversion of a settlement agreement into a judgment or award has proved useful on the small number of occasions when compliance with a settlement appears that it may be an issue. A delicate balance is required between supporting mediation, on the one hand, and not freezing litigation or upholding illegiality, on the other. Absolute rules or uniform statutes, while appearing to offer straightforward rules for an informal process, can in practice prove overreaching or inappropriate. A possible middle path could protect mediation confiddentiality and also allow evidence about the mediation to be admitted in limited curcumstances to be specified by the court on a case-by-case basis.

This thesis examines possible synergies and points of friction between understandings of disability that emphasise its social contingency and jurisprudential debates on substantive equality and access to social security in the context of the promotion of access to work for disabled persons in South Africa. In consequence of an analysis of theoretical debates in the field of disability studies and how these find application in the sphere of employment equity law, it is concluded that, while social understandings of disability mostly focus on structural changes that would see people with disabilities who can and want to work gain access to such work, the positive obligations imposed on employers and the state in terms of equality rights and employment equity legislation are of limited depth and breadth. It is proposed that one potential course of action to address the limited scope of equality law would be to emphasise the state's obligations in terms of socio-economic rights where these rights are relevant to work inequality. Particular emphasis is placed on how the interpretation and application of the right to access to social security could be used to activate government's duties in respect of unemployment protection and work creation. The conclusion reached is that while this strategy poses risks and has its limitations, it can be used to improve information gathering in respect of disabled work seekers that will aid planning and enforcement; to facilitate support for disabled work seekers who experience discrimination; to compel government to improve the implementation and enforcement of employment equity laws in respect of disabled work applicants; to catalyse a holistic approach to social security that considers the interrelationship between social assistance and promoting unemployment protection for disabled persons who are willing and able to work; and to provide different forms of support to disabled people who do not operate in the formal labour market, but who can and do perform work that falls outside the scope of traditional labour market regulation.

The integrated global economy has presented challenges as well as opportunities for companies and their surrounding communities. This has resulted in many jurisdictions having to re-evaluate the question of company failure and how best to deal with it. The South African context has seen the enactment of a new Companies Act, ushering in a rescue regime which evidences a significant departure from its predecessor; judicial management. Contained within Chapter 6 of the Companies Act of 2008, business rescue adopts a fresh approach to company resuscitation. With relatively easy access to the procedure, business rescue caters for the restructure of the business, debt or its equity to ensure either a return to solvency or a better return to creditors than in liquidation. The new regime is further underpinned by the 2008 Act purpose provision, which envisages an efficient business rescue procedure and further mandates that the resolution of financial distress be conducted in a manner that balances the rights and interests of all relevant stakeholders. It is in this light, that this study explores the interplay between section 7(k) and Chapter 6 of the new Act. Specifically, the work sets out to critique the manner in which our new business rescue regime balances competing stakeholder interests in its provisions and investigates whether current provisions provide an adequate framework for this to be done in a manner that enhances the regime's ability to return a financially distressed company to a position of solvency, as a primary objective. After discussing the previous judicial management regime and exploring the mechanics of Chapter 6, a comparative study of similar procedures in the United Kingdom and the United States is undertaken. The study further identifies a number of weaknesses and makes recommendation for improvement.

This thesis answers the question of how South Africa ought to regulate ownership of patentable employee-inventions within the prevailing patent system. It is concerned with developing a South African legal regulatory framework for an optimal default allocation of ownership in patentable inventions made by employee-inventors in the private sector. It approaches this concern from the perspective that the law relating to ownership of employee-inventions should align with the purpose of patents as tools for encouraging private sector investment in technological innovation. This perspective is informed by a theoretical framework based on assumptions about, amongst other things, the role of patents as individual incentives, the nature of inventorship, and the likely incentive effect of a grant of a patent on employers' and employee-inventors' contributions to inventive activity. The core of the thesis is an analysis of the South African law relating to the allocation of ownership of patentable inventions between employers and employees to determine whether and how it supports the incentive function of the patent system. This includes a consideration of the ownership of intellectual property which may arise as a consequence of the inventive activity and which attract statutory protection in the form of copyright, industrial design rights, and plant breeders' rights. In the absence of international guidance and a dearth of sources about the South African approach, an examination of the British and American approaches provides insight into divergent legal regulatory responses to the same issue. A key conclusion is that the prevailing South African law does not provide for an efficient legal framework for the allocation of patent rights between employers and employees when reviewed against the purpose of the patent system in the innovation context. Based on this and other conclusions about the factors which ought to inform the regulation of the allocation, recommendations for a new legislative framework which is responsive to the purpose of patents as individual incentives, but which is also cognisant of the dynamics of the employment relationship, are made.