Magister Legum - LLM (Criminal Justice and Procedure) / As states continue to rapidly transition from conflict or autocracy to democracy, there has been need to address past gross human rights violations. To address these past egregious violations, transitioning countries often relied on immunities and prosecutions. However, prosecutions and amnesties presented several challenges that necessitated a recourse to truth and reconciliation commissions (hereafter TRCs). Since then, TRCs have evolved to be an essential accountability mechanism in transitional justice. Given the important role that TRCs play in transitioning countries, the composition of TRCs should be of credible character in the eye of the public. The selected and appointed truth commissioners (hereafter commissioners) play a key role in the truth-finding process and the importance of having a constraint-free and reliable work plan of selecting these commissioners cannot be overestimated. However, in practice the selection and appointment of the commissioners has proven to be a challenging exercise.

Magister Legum - LLM (Criminal Justice and Procedure) / As states continue to rapidly transition from conflict or autocracy to democracy, there has been need to address past gross human rights violations. To address these past egregious violations, transitioning countries often relied on immunities and prosecutions. However, prosecutions and amnesties presented several challenges that necessitated a recourse to truth and reconciliation commissions (hereafter TRCs). Since then, TRCs have evolved to be an essential accountability mechanism in transitional justice.

The problem. --The problem in this study was to describe the issues arising in employment decisions appealed to the Texas Commissioner of Education. Decisions made in courts are binding on school officials, and they are published in law reporters found in most libraries. The Commissioner's decisions are also binding on school officials, but they are not published or widely reported. Thus, this important body of information may not reach those who are responsible for its application. Methods. --The decisions of the Commissioner were examined to determine the issues and the underlying rationale used by the Commissioner in the process of deciding the appeals. A series of data reductions allowed a determination of patterns found in the outcomes of the decisions which favored the employee and those which favored the school districts. The analysis produced a set of data from which implications for decision making could be drawn.

The thesis investigates the extent to which cross-border taking of evidence in civil and com-mercial matters in relation to Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda is allowed. Such evidence-taking is not only governed by the domestic law of the state seeking evidence abroad and that of the state where the relevant means of proof are located, but also by public international law, and more specifically by the concept of sovereignty. The ad-missibility of the cross-border taking of evidence under public international law depends on whether or not evidence-gathering in civil litigation is regarded as a judicial act, which violates sovereignty when performed on foreign territory, or as a purely private act. In the first case, the evidentiary material has to be obtained through channels of international judicial assistance. Such assistance can either be rendered based on the basis of an international treaty, or through courtoisie internationale. No international judicial assistance is necessary in cases of a so-called “transfer of foreign evidence”, provided no compulsion is applied which infringes the sovereignty of the foreign state. The thesis analyses the taking of evidence abroad based on the Hague Evidence Convention, and the Hague Procedure Convention. It further expounds how evidence located in Switzer-land, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda can be obtained for the benefit of civil proceed-ings pending abroad in the absence of any relevant international treaty. The thesis also exam-ines under what conditions a litigant in civil proceedings in the aforementioned countries may request evidence to be taken on foreign soil. The position of cross-border taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters in the said countries is assessed, and suggestions are made on how such status quo may be improved. The thesis makes an attempt to establish the basic prin-ciples for a convention on evidence-taking in civil and commercial matters between South Af-rica, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda. The development of such principles, however, is only possible once the similarities and differences in the procedure for the taking of evidence and the means of proof in the relevant laws of the aforesaid countries have been identified. / Public, Constitutional, & International / LL.D.

Post-apartheid writing has been characterized by an ardent search for a voice that truly depicts the painful apartheid past. The establishment of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) promoted a confessional mode of writing as a means to obtaining healing, hence reconstitution. Such a paradigm shift in writing necessitated imagined characters to re-invent and re-align themselves with the new post-apartheid dispensation if they were to remain relevant to South African readership. Reinvention of characters is made possible through several means and various organs of reconstitution such as history, narration, possession of one’s landscape and a disavowal of belonging as depicted in The Native Commissioner. This study seeks to examine the process of self-constitution undergone by the co-protagonist and surrogate narrator, Sam Jameson, following his failure to function as an individual and father in post-apartheid South Africa. To this end, a close reading of the novel is done, to better understand the context of Sam’s trauma. The study traces the self-reconstitutive process of Sam from the moment he decides to re-visit his father’s past, to the moment when he finds release from the trauma. I argue that an investigation of his father’s life, as well as his, ultimately gives him agency over his own. Sam’s identity shifts from his childhood past, in which apartheid exerts primary influence, to that of an adult who lives in the post-apartheid moment, having come to terms with his past. Telling his story, to him becomes an act of re-creation and self-invention and the means by which he formulates his own identity. At the end of the story, it is a totally liberated individual that the reader witnesses. / English Studies / M.A. (English)

No description available.

Although civil war affects all civilians, it impacts men and women in different ways, and it influences their gender roles and responsibilities. Comparatively little attention has been given to assessing the gender sensitivity of international organizations who implement post-conflict reconstruction programs. The different social, economic and political dimensions of war to peace transitions, and how they impact on gender relations, can shed some light on the complicated intersections of needs and interests in wartorn societies. An examination of the policies of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and the World Bank reveals that there is relatively little gender mainstreaming within their post-conflict operations. This research finds that the lack of resources and coordination, the failure to build on local capacities, and a lack of commitment to gender mainstreaming are the main obstacles these organizations face. To improve the situation it is recommended that organizations develop and use a 'gender checklist' at all stages of project planning, implementation and monitoring to ensure increased gender sensitivity in post-conflict programming.

The thesis investigates the extent to which cross-border taking of evidence in civil and com-mercial matters in relation to Switzerland, South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda is allowed. Such evidence-taking is not only governed by the domestic law of the state seeking evidence abroad and that of the state where the relevant means of proof are located, but also by public international law, and more specifically by the concept of sovereignty. The ad-missibility of the cross-border taking of evidence under public international law depends on whether or not evidence-gathering in civil litigation is regarded as a judicial act, which violates sovereignty when performed on foreign territory, or as a purely private act. In the first case, the evidentiary material has to be obtained through channels of international judicial assistance. Such assistance can either be rendered based on the basis of an international treaty, or through courtoisie internationale. No international judicial assistance is necessary in cases of a so-called “transfer of foreign evidence”, provided no compulsion is applied which infringes the sovereignty of the foreign state. The thesis analyses the taking of evidence abroad based on the Hague Evidence Convention, and the Hague Procedure Convention. It further expounds how evidence located in Switzer-land, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda can be obtained for the benefit of civil proceed-ings pending abroad in the absence of any relevant international treaty. The thesis also exam-ines under what conditions a litigant in civil proceedings in the aforementioned countries may request evidence to be taken on foreign soil. The position of cross-border taking of evidence in civil and commercial matters in the said countries is assessed, and suggestions are made on how such status quo may be improved. The thesis makes an attempt to establish the basic prin-ciples for a convention on evidence-taking in civil and commercial matters between South Af-rica, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, and Uganda. The development of such principles, however, is only possible once the similarities and differences in the procedure for the taking of evidence and the means of proof in the relevant laws of the aforesaid countries have been identified. / Public, Constitutional, and International / LL.D.

Au XVIIe siècle, Dijon, capitale de la province, est le lieu où résident les membres des organes politiques, administratifs et financiers. La ville connaît alors un remarquable essor de la construction privée. Les bâtisseurs sont principalement les officiers des cours souveraines, parlementaires ou conseillers à la chambre des comptes, qui satisfont leur besoin de représentation sociale en commandant des demeures dignes de leur rang : l’hôtel est bien l’illustration de ceux qui détiennent le pouvoir, le lieu à la fois d’une démonstration sociale, architecturale et artistique.Cette étude, première synthèse sur les hôtels particuliers dijonnais de 1610 à 1715, est abordée selon trois axes de réflexion : les commanditaires, les architectes et leurs réalisations. L’analyse architecturale des hôtels, qui laisse une large part à la distribution, permet une étude comparative avec Paris et les autres grandes villes parlementaires du royaume. / In the seventeenth century, Dijon, capital of the province, was the place where proposed members of the political, administrative and financial bodies chose to live. The city therefore experienced a remarkable boom in the construction of private residences. The builders were mainly officers of the sovereign courts, members of parliament or advisors to the Board of Auditors who wanted to satisfy their need for social representation by ordering houses worthy of their rank : the private mansion was the illustration of people of power, place both a demonstration of social standing, architectural and artistic.This study, the first synthesis of the private mansions of Dijon from 1610 to 1715, is approached according to three lines of thought: the commissioners, the architects and their constructions. The architectural analysis of mansions which leaves a large part to the distribution, allows the comparison with Paris and other major cities of the parliamentary kingdom.

This Master Thesis focuses on one of the most significant instrument of conflict prevention in the OSCE -- the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM). The aim of this thesis is to find out which determinants of his involvement contributed to the prevention of Civil War in the FYROM and why it failed in Kosovo. The first part looks into the theory of conflict prevention. The second chapter introduces the OSCE and focuses on function, mandate and activities of the HCNM. The third chapter analyzes and compares the involvement of the HCNM in the FYROM and Kosovo.