The purpose of this mini-dissertation is to determine whether and to what extent contractual freedom are infringed and/or obviated by the Consumer Protection Act and to establish if the limitation created by the CPA is the answer to the problem of inequality of bargaining powers of contracting parties. A fundamental concept of law of contract is freedom of contract: the idea that the parties are free to decide whether or not to contract; with whom to contract; and on what terms to contract. Despite the fact that freedom of contract is deeply engrained in our society it has a rather shaky foundation based on multiple assumptions and when objectively viewed the truth is that when making a contract there is always social and economical pressure that is implied in negotiating each and every contract. Having regard to the above it can be said that realistically speaking the fundamental concept of equality in the bargaining powers of contacting parties is the exception rather than the rule and that this unequal position has without a doubt undermined the true notion of freedom of contract. Our Common law has developed many rules and principles to curb this unfairness in the making of contracts. The CPA has praiseworthy intentions such as the promotion of fair business practice and the protection of the vulnerable from exploitation and unsafe and hazardous goods and/or products. Despite the good intentions of the CPA and every other aspect that might have an influence the problem remains enforcement of these principles. Thus despite the infringement of contractual freedom by the regulations of the CPA it appears not to be the answer to the problem of inequality in the bargaining power of parties negotiating a contract. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2014. / lmchunu2014 / Mercantile Law / unrestricted

The thesis consists of three essays. In the first essay, the strategic effects of bonus/penalty compensation contracts are analysed. This essay consists of the first three chapters of the thesis. In Chapter 1, viewing each firm as a "principal-agent" pair, we examine firms' rivalry in bonus/penalty contracts in oligopolistic markets when the agents are risk-neutral. Under standard assumptions concerning production, demand, and cost functions, we show that bonus/penalty contracts may be used for strategic purposes. We find that whether agents' actions would (in equilibrium) be encouraged through bonuses or discouraged through penalties would critically depend on the existing strategic relationships between agents' actions or firms' products. We further show that firms' capita] stocks can affect their strategic positions in the bonus/penalty rivalry. The social welfare implication of the bonus/penalty rivalry is also examined. In Chapter 2, using a general framework of rivalrous agency with risk-averse agents, we identify two distinctive effects of bonus/penalty contracting, namely, the strategic effect and the incentive effect. We find that the two effects may or may not work in the same direction for a principal-agent pair, depending on the nature of strategic relationships between agents' actions. In Chapter 3, we compare the strategic effects of bonus/penalty contracts with that of linear contracts. We find that, if only one principal is active in designing agency compensation contracts, then he/she would be indifferent between a bonus/penalty contract and a linear contract. If both principals are active in designing agency contracts, however, the choice between bonus/penalty and linear contracts would in general matter to the principals. In particular, we show in an example that both principals would non-cooperatively choose a bonus contract over a linear contract. The second essay of the thesis, as in Chapter 4, presents an analysis of common sales agents based on their precommitment role when consumers are imperfectly informed about the products on the market. We show that an exclusive channel stucture can create a cost due to exclusive channels' inability to commit themselves to sales impartiality. We further show that independent non-cooperative firms may use common agents as a precommitment device to convince potential consumers that the risk of being misrepresented has been reduced or eliminated. We demonstrate that a market involving common sales agents can arise as an equilibrium outcome. Our analysis shows that common sales agents can be welfare improving for both firms and consumers. The third essay, as in Chapter 5, investigates the dynamic pattern of firm competitive conduct, using time-series and firm-specific data for a set of duopoly airline routes. We estimate the mean conduct parameters for each firm and each period, and infer whether the data are consistent with the Cournot, Bertrand, Friedman, or Green-Porter models. We find that airlines' competitive behavior may switch between the competitive and collusive regimes. Moreover, we find that airline profits in a collusive period appear less than the (single-period) monopoly profits, and the degree of overall market competitiveness is between the Cournot and monopoly solutions but closer to the Cournot solution. Our data suggest that major carriers might use quantity volumes, rather than prices, as their strategy variables. We also conduct some Bayesian analysis of seeing how our results would influence priors associated with different models. We illustrate a model choice criterion based on Bayesian analysis and use the criterion to choose the "best" model among competing models. / Business, Sauder School of / Graduate

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The topic of my thesis is the analysis of non-contractual legal institutions of the use of copyrighted work, that means the means how to use a copyrighted work without the need to conclude an agreement with it's author. The wording of the thesis itself is divided into four chapters. After the brief introduction of the topic, I explain the basic relevant terms in the field of copyright and subsequently, I address the sources of copyright law on the national level, on the level of EU and finally, on the international level, with the analysis of the main sources. Before the attention is paid to the core of this thesis, I explain the concepts of copyrighted work and author. The fundamental part of my thesis contains the analysis of non-contractual legal institutions of the use of copyrighted work, whereas I address the very concept of these institutions and furthermore, I concentrate on free works, exceptions and limitations of copyright. In the follow-up part of the thesis, I adress the analysis of the particular free-of- charge, as well as chargeable statutory licences. The entire thesis emphasizes also the link with the EU law, accordingly, I mention several significant decisions of the Court of Justice of the European Union, whereas, some of them are examined in greater detail (e.g. the judgment in...

The topic of this thesis is the law applicable to obligations with an international aspect, which is an area that presents a complex and important part of private international law. Statutes dealing with obligations with an international aspect may be of national, international or EU origin and employ different methods to regulate such obligations. Therefore, in comparison with national legal disciplines, the determination of the appropriate legal statute may prove challenging. One of the questions this thesis deals with is the relationship between these statutes and the basic principles upon which the selection between them should be made. Obligations with an international aspect are at the present time dominated by two EU regulations, namely the Rome I Regulation which deals with contractual obligations and the Rome II Regulation which deals with non-contractual obligations. A large portion of this thesis is devoted to their analysis. Instead of a detailed description of their every provision, which for the purpose of this work is unnecessary, this thesis focuses on the scope of application of these Regulations, the conflict rules and the scope of the applicable law. Chapters two and three are a general outline of the issues that follow in this work. The second chapter explains the basic terms...

Contractual Penalty under the Commercial Code (with focus on the discretionary power of a judge to reduce a contractual penalty) Contractual penalty is a concept frequently used by the parties to consolidate the position of the creditor as well as to motivate the debtor to fulfill the obligation as agreed. Not different from the other institutes of private law, the practical application of contractual penalty arises many questions with no uniform answers. The purpose of the thesis is to analyze selected contentious issues concerning the contractual penalty, especially discretionary power of a judge to reduce its unreasonable amount, to confront controversial theoretical opinions as well as non-conforming conclusions drawn from the juristic theory and established practice of the courts and add own opinion on the discussed matters. The paper does not include the exhaustive construction of contractual penalty, and therefore the general aspects are outlined only to the necessary extent. Greater attention is paid to the creation and existence of the right and claim to the contractual penalty. The study shifts the focus on the discretionary power of a judge to mitigate its inappropriate amount comprising different opinions on the related issues. The concept of contractual penalty has been used in private...

Aujourd’hui encore considérées comme deux ordres distincts de la responsabilité administrative, les responsabilités contractuelle et extra-contractuelle se différencient en raison de leur régime. La coexistence d’une telle dualité de régime de responsabilité en droit administratif implique certaines difficultés pratiques quant au choix du régime à appliquer à tel ou tel litige puisque ils existent des situations où la question du fondement de l’action indemnitaire n’est pas fermement résolue et laisse place à des incertitudes et ambiguïtés. Or, il est essentiel d’y remédier en raison des conséquences insatisfaisantes qu’elles peuvent notamment emporter sur l’exigence de sécurité juridique. Cette nécessité est d’autant plus vraie que l’état du droit est riche de situations d’interaction entre les régimes de responsabilité toutes les fois où peuvent se chevaucher le domaine de responsabilité contractuelle et celui de la responsabilité extra-contractuelle. Les frontières entre les régimes de responsabilité apparaissent ainsi poreuses et mouvantes. Beaucoup d’hypothèses ne peuvent sans hésitation être classées dans l’un ou l’autre des domaines de responsabilité de telle sorte que certaines solutions jurisprudentielles contradictoires peuvent surgir : face à la nécessité d’opter pour un régime de responsabilité, les tribunaux doivent choisir, parfois artificiellement, un régime de responsabilité, solutions sujettes à critiques. Ces problématiques liées à l’existence d’une dualité de régime démontrent l’importance de préciser et de prévoir en amont le régime de responsabilité applicable à chaque litige et nous invite à nous questionner sur l’état des lieux de la dualité en droit administratif. Il convient à ce titre de résister à la tentation d’établir une unification des régimes des responsabilités contractuelle et extra-contractuelle qui apparaîtrait artificielle, afin d’y préférer un travail de délimitation de leur domaine respectif, plus cohérent et plus satisfaisant au regard de certaines préoccupations : sécurité juridique, égalité de traitement, mais également respect de l’engagement tenu et des spécificités du régime contractuel. Ainsi, la recherche d’un élargissement du domaine de la responsabilité contractuelle à l’ensemble des situations dommageables intervenues à l’occasion de l’exécution d’un contrat administratif devrait permettre d’atteindre un tel objectif. / Even today, the contractual and extra-contractual liabilities differ because of their regime and they are considered as two different orders different from the public responsibility, The coexistence of such duality in administrative law involves certain practical difficulties as for the choice of the regime to be applied to such or such dispute because exist some situations where the question of the foundation of the indemnitaire action is not firmly solved and gives way to uncertainties and ambiguities. It is essential to remedy it because of the unsatisfactory consequences which they can take in particular on the requirement of legal security. This necessity is particulary true as the state of the law is rich in situations of interaction between liability regimes all the times when can overlap the domain of contractual liability and that of the extra-contractual liability. The borders between liability schemes seem so porous and unstable. Many hypotheses be classified cannot without hesitation in the one or other one of the domains of responsibility so that certain contradictory case law solutions can appear: in front of the necessity of opting for a liability scheme, the courts have to choose, sometimes artificially, a liability scheme, solutions subject to criticisms.These problems bound to the existence of a duality of regime demonstrate the importance to specify and to plan upstream the liability scheme applicable to every dispute and invites us to question us about the current situation of the duality in public law. It is advisable to resist the temptation to establish a unification of the regimes of the contractual and extra-contractual responsibilities which would seem artificial, to prefer a work of demarcation, more coherent and satisfactorier, of their respective domain with regard to certain concerns: legal security, equal treatment, but also respect for the held commitment and for the specificities of the contractual regime. So, the research for an extension of the domain of the contractual liability to all the harmful situations intervened on the occasion of the execution of a public service contract should allow to reach such goal.

Any contractual operation has a risk, which can be assumed by one of the parties, as agreed. In this context, it is common for cases of delays due to concurrent causes imputable to both parties, which can generate a high difficulty when assigning the risk. In this article, the author explains, from a comparative perspective, the different possibilities of solution in front of cases related with the concurrent delay controversies. It analyzes the various doctrines developed both in the Civil Law tradition and in the Common Law. / Toda operación contractual conlleva un riesgo, el cual puede ser asumido por una de las partes según lo convenido. En ese contexto, es habitual que se presenten casos de demora (por causas concurrentes imputable a ambas partes, lo cual puede generar una gran dificultad al momento de asignar el riesgo. En el presente artículo, el autor explica, desde una perspectiva comparada, las diferentes posibilidades de solución frente a las controverisas relacionadas con la mora concurrente. Se analiza las diversas doctrinas desarrolladas tanto en la tradición del Civil Law como del Common Law.

The author of this article details how we would state responsibility of the state in cases of error, for which develops the figure within the public sphere. In that sense, the deeper the scope and types of regulated responsibilities, according to the study carried out it comes. Subsequently, a detailed analysis of the contractual and extra-contractual responsibility of the state in various situations within the field of public management is done. Finally, assumptions configuration of different types of state responsibility develops. / El autor del presente artículo nos detalla en qué consistiría la responsabilidad estatal del Estado en supuestos de error, para lo cual desarrolla la figura dentro del ámbito público. En ese sentido, a mayor profundidad se trata el ámbito de aplicación y los tipos de responsabilidades reguladas, de acuerdo al estudio realizado. Posteriormente, se realiza un análisis minucioso sobre la responsabilidad contractual como extra contractual del Estado en diversos supuestos dentro del ámbito de la gestión pública. Finalmente, se desarrolla los supuestos de configuración de los distintos tipos de responsabilidad del Estado.

In any contractual operation, risks are presented, which have a significant cost in economic operations. In view of this, the parties, in exercise of their contractual freedom, regulate the allocation of risks in the most appropriate way to their needs, seeking efficiency. In this article, the author explains the importance of risks in contractual operations, the reason for the modification of legal provisions of risk allocation, and why contracts should be interpreted literally. / En toda operación contractual, se presentan riesgos, los cuales tienen un costo significativo en las operaciones económicas. Ante ello, las partes, en ejercicio de su libertad contractual, regulan la asignación de los riesgos de la forma más acorde a su necesidad, buscando la eficiencia. En el presente artículo, el autor explica la relevancia de los riegos en las operaciones contractuales, la razón de la modificación de las disposiciones legales de asignación de riesgo y por qué los contratos deben interpretarse literalmente.