The primary focus of this thesis is to examine the utilization of paralegals in the job market. A summary and analysis of the paralegal role will include career development, level of academic education, and employment outlook.

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Depuis l’abolition de la monarchie absolue en 1932, le royaume a connu des situations politiques variées : les activités « contre-révolutionnaires » des royalistes ; l’arrivée au pouvoir des militaires ; l’émergence de nouvelles classes politiques ; les massacres de civils ; les compromis entre les militaires, les royalistes et les progressistes ; l’incertitude sur l’avenir du royaume et de la couronne... L’échec de la transition démocratique thaïlandaise est expliqué généralement par un argument convenu : l’immaturité de la société thaïlandaise ; la démocratie libérale de type occidental ne serait pas appropriée pour le pays, notamment pour des « pauvres ruraux ignorants » ; l’armée est le seul acteur capable d’encadrer le développement d’une démocratie. Pourtant, cette étude présente une explication alternative ; elle démontre que la vie politique du royaume est déterminée par trois axes du pouvoir : les élites traditionnelles, dont la monarchie, l’armée et la haute fonction publique ; c’est cette situation qui explique l’échec du progrès démocratique. Et le coup d’État est la méthode préférée pour protéger le statu quo ; quant à la constitution thaïlandaise est semblable à une « lettre morte » ou à un « instrument de la politique au quotidien » ; elle ne représente plus la norme suprême qui exprime l’idéologie politique du pays ; au contraire, elle est utilisée non seulement pour légitimer a posteriori un coup d’État, mais également pour défendre la domination politique des groupes dominants. Nous pouvons donc conclure que le coup d’État thaïlandais est déclenché par l’armée royale avec l’appui de la monarchie et son réseau de conseillers ; puis, il est justifié par le roi et le judiciaire, en assurant l’impunité de ses auteurs par les lois et la constitution. / Since the abolition of absolute monarchy in 1932, the kingdom has experienced the various political situations: the ‘counter-revolution’ of the royalists, the dictatorial regime, the emergence of the new middle classes, the massacres of civilians, the political compromise, the uncertainty about the future of the kingdom and the crown… The failure of a transition to democracy is usually explained by the usual arguments: the political immaturity of Thai society, the ‘Western-style liberal democracy’ would not be appropriate for the country especially for ‘the ignorant masses’, the army is the only actor, who capable to promote democracy. However, this study presents an alternative explanation. It demonstrates that the political life of the kingdom is determined by three axes of power: traditional elites, including the monarchy, the army and the senior civil servant. It is this situation that explains the failure of the democratic process. And the coup is the traditional method to protect their status quo. As for the constitution, it is similar to a ‘dead letter’ or an ‘instrument of everyday politics’. It isn’t represented as supreme norm that expresses the country’s political ideology. On the contrary, it is used not only to legitimize a coup, but also to defend the political domination of the traditional elites. We can conclude that the Thai coups are triggered by the royal army with the support of the monarchy. Then, justified by the king and the judiciary, and assuring the impunity by the laws and the constitutions.

This thesis aims to provide a novel approach to ensure copyright compliance online, appropriate for the Internet of Things and the robotic revolution. To achieve this, three different aims are pursued: - A novel application of “by design” solutions to copyright protection is introduced and its advantages and disadvantages discussed from a jurisprudential and doctrinal perspective. - On the basis of this, a new theoretical framework for legal AI is developed that draws on Andy Clark’s “extended mind” model of cognition. - This then leads to a new way for implementing legal knowledge and cognition in expert systems, and an outline implementation of this approach is introduced and discussed. The Internet and the Information and Communication Technology (ICT) revolution has delivered important social benefits that had reshaped our conception of the world by expanding knowledge and culture. However, its dynamic nature and technical composition had made it attractive for the commission of illegal activities also. One of the areas that have experienced this combined effect is the creative industry. The Internet has enhanced its capacity to reach new markets, distribute their material digitally, has allowed aspiring artists to disseminate their work to large audiences and has even incentivised the development of novel techniques to create new material. Nevertheless, it has also allowed unauthorized access and distribution of copyrighted materials, causing economic harms on a considerable scale. Traditional legal responses -punishment after a criminal act- proved incapable to provide a deterrent effect to these activities, mostly due to the capacity of infringers to adapt to the operational particularities of cyberspace. The difficulty to enforce copyright in cyberspace, outside national jurisdictions and with easier and faster ways of replication of material, led to the development of a new paradigm of enforcement: automated enforcement by software code. Here, automated enforcement is delivered by embedding copyright law directly into software code: Digital Rights Management, commonly known as DRM was the first adopter of this approach. These programs provided restricted access, based solely on the rights granted by the author or the rights holder in relation to a particular work. This, arguably, had the potential of reducing the possibilities of unlawful use. But it also prevented some forms of legal use, especially those exceptions to copyright granted by statute. Despite the positive expectations around DRM, it therefore did not have the expect success. The thesis will discuss some of the lessons that can be learned from this relative failure. One result will be a discussion if these systems were “too dumb” to present truly regulation by code, and if this contributed to their failure. However, the failure of these early devices does not necessarily mean the end of the collaboration between copyright law and technology. The concept of “law as computer code” was addressed from other technological approaches suitable of operating without the issues presented on DRM. The thesis argues therefore that robotic technology is a novel application for the implementation of automated enforcement of copyright law. In this scenario, artificial creators require the capacity to understand and replicate human cognitive processes used during the creation of artistic works. This includes the detection and lawful management of relevant features contained in already existing works. To avoid this situation, these devices need the capacity to adapt their behaviour based on the legal status of a relevant work to reduce the risk of performing copyright infringing conducts. This represents a significant advance in relation to traditional devices: legal compliance is delivered through a preventive, non-punishing scheme, which presents an effective method to protect digital material on the cyberspace. Additionally, this research addresses, but to a lesser degree, the impact of computer-generated works on the legal framework. It is a very well established principle that copyright protects human creativity and spontaneity, and one can ask if such characteristics are attributable to a computer. This has left these creations outside of the protective scope of most legal systems. This also means the development of an international approach is a difficult task. This research will demonstrate how legal ontologies can help to address this problem. Among the novel aspect of the thesis, the combination of computational legal reasoning and theory of legal cognition stands out. In this sense, traditional implementations of legal artificial intelligence aimed to replicate the reasoning processes performed by a judge as part of a trial or similar formal legal procedures. This means a high degree of legal accuracy was required, which in turn necessitated a considerable amount of time and resources to develop a formal reasoner and knowledge base. Contrary to this, cognitive operations performed by ordinary humans are rarely a straightforward process, they require the capacity to interact with the environment and leave little time for complex reasoning processes. Instead, citizens implement a series of cognitive strategies that involve interaction with the environment, cognitive shortcuts and the implementation of preconceived responses. This can be seen in a variety of scenarios, for example, in the presence of an image of a camera crossed by a diagonal line indicates to us that the action of taking photographs is not allowed and it probably carries a legal consequence; a closed door signals a prima facie prohibition to enter that space without a key etc. These actions allow us to operate law compliantly in a dynamic social environment without performing unnecessary complex legal processes or the constant conseil of an attorney. The research presented in this thesis, aims to define if this intuitive reasoning about the law in open scenarios, can be implemented in computational legal systems. Finally, this thesis concludes that by delivering intelligent technology the capacity to replicate legal cognitive processes, automated enforcement of copyright law can be achieved.

This thesis is an exercise in the historical use of legal analysis. It illuminates the social construction of gender in an era of changing social mores, by relating rape doctrines to demographic, economic, social, and cultural changes. Changes in the rape law of early Industrial Britain (1800-1860) are examined as: 1). results of ideological changes since the eighteenth century; and 2). causes of the creation of Victorian sexual culture. The ideology of Separate Spheres for men and women led to a fearful sexual regime which prescribed chaperoning to ensure womens chastity. Law made womens avoidance of being alone outside, where they could become prey of strange men, a requirement for sexual respectability, because rape became more difficult to prove.<p>The 1817 rural Midlands murder case of Rex versus Abraham Thornton caused popular controversy because the judge said physical evidence of brutal sex was not inconsistent with consensual sex: the woman could have been persuaded by violence: reasonable doubt on the rape meant the accused was presumed to lack a motive to kill the deceased. Thornton was influential on law and gender ideology. Consent to forcethe idea that a woman could meaningfully consent to sex after violencewas extended in later rape cases. Secondly, even though the public reacted against Thorntons acquittal, popular culture interpreted it to support Stranger Dangerthat women risk rape by strangers while out alone, and should remain at home unless accompanied by trusted men. Consent to Force and Stranger Danger worked at different levels of the social hierarchy. But both served to extend Separate Spheres to working class women.<p>Law undermined traditional mores which had supported the North West European marriage systemlate marriage, small age difference between brides and grooms, nuclear family households, and numerous adolescents working in others homes as servants, resulting in low rates of premarital births during long courtships. Young commoners had managed a sexual balancing act by engaging in sexual exploration while refraining from vaginal intercourse. Late marriage, very low illegitimacy, and high rates of prenuptial conceptions of first marital births, resulted from young couples engaging in sexual intercourse only when conditions for marriage were right. Young men had to marry pregnant sweethearts, because communities could identify putative fathers.<p>Industrialization threw the North West marriage system out of balance: young men became more mobile and able to evade forced marriage. It also became more difficult for young men, especially artisans, to achieve the status traditionally associated with marriage. This sexual crisis was exacerbated by upper class libertinism spreading to commoner men. The Thornton case promoted libertinism among all men, to allow men of higher class to approach lower class women for prostitution.<p>The moral denigration of lower class women under rape law after Thornton was the flip side of the association of marriage with making wives consent to sex upon demand by their husbands, under Fraternal Patriarchy. Categorizing women as bad girls or good girls became central to rape law, yet illusory. Lower class women persuadable by force were subjected to similar constraints as wives: both were to think selflessly about fulfilling mens needs. Bourgeois wives, like domestic servants, entered lifelong contracts to serve heads of households upon demand. Domestic torts based upon the property right of masters of households to service provided by wives and children, as well as servants, linked treatment of different classes of women. <p>But because lower class women were not marriageable to elite men, their premarital chastity was not considered as valuable. Working class womens gender value was discounted; working class men were emasculated as potential heads of households, by economic instability interfering with marriage, the displacement of mens authority over wives to their employers, and the 1834 New Poor Law, which proposed removing wives and children from working class husbands and fathers when they went onto relief. De-gendering of lower class women and men was reflected in the difficulty that lower class men had in obtaining damages for domestic torts. Privileging of the bourgeois with respect to gender contributed to the failure of feminist and labour movements to cement a political alliance. Industrial-era rape doctrines were ultimately applied to all women rape complainants, regardless of class status, and became the basis for the anti-victim rape laws which second wave feminists analyzed and opposed. Modern rape law still presents women with similar challenges, based upon rape myths like Stranger Danger.

This thesis is an exercise in the historical use of legal analysis. It illuminates the social construction of gender in an era of changing social mores, by relating rape doctrines to demographic, economic, social, and cultural changes. Changes in the rape law of early Industrial Britain (1800-1860) are examined as: 1). results of ideological changes since the eighteenth century; and 2). causes of the creation of Victorian sexual culture. The ideology of Separate Spheres for men and women led to a fearful sexual regime which prescribed chaperoning to ensure womens chastity. Law made womens avoidance of being alone outside, where they could become prey of strange men, a requirement for sexual respectability, because rape became more difficult to prove.<p>The 1817 rural Midlands murder case of Rex versus Abraham Thornton caused popular controversy because the judge said physical evidence of brutal sex was not inconsistent with consensual sex: the woman could have been persuaded by violence: reasonable doubt on the rape meant the accused was presumed to lack a motive to kill the deceased. Thornton was influential on law and gender ideology. Consent to forcethe idea that a woman could meaningfully consent to sex after violencewas extended in later rape cases. Secondly, even though the public reacted against Thorntons acquittal, popular culture interpreted it to support Stranger Dangerthat women risk rape by strangers while out alone, and should remain at home unless accompanied by trusted men. Consent to Force and Stranger Danger worked at different levels of the social hierarchy. But both served to extend Separate Spheres to working class women.<p>Law undermined traditional mores which had supported the North West European marriage systemlate marriage, small age difference between brides and grooms, nuclear family households, and numerous adolescents working in others homes as servants, resulting in low rates of premarital births during long courtships. Young commoners had managed a sexual balancing act by engaging in sexual exploration while refraining from vaginal intercourse. Late marriage, very low illegitimacy, and high rates of prenuptial conceptions of first marital births, resulted from young couples engaging in sexual intercourse only when conditions for marriage were right. Young men had to marry pregnant sweethearts, because communities could identify putative fathers.<p>Industrialization threw the North West marriage system out of balance: young men became more mobile and able to evade forced marriage. It also became more difficult for young men, especially artisans, to achieve the status traditionally associated with marriage. This sexual crisis was exacerbated by upper class libertinism spreading to commoner men. The Thornton case promoted libertinism among all men, to allow men of higher class to approach lower class women for prostitution.<p>The moral denigration of lower class women under rape law after Thornton was the flip side of the association of marriage with making wives consent to sex upon demand by their husbands, under Fraternal Patriarchy. Categorizing women as bad girls or good girls became central to rape law, yet illusory. Lower class women persuadable by force were subjected to similar constraints as wives: both were to think selflessly about fulfilling mens needs. Bourgeois wives, like domestic servants, entered lifelong contracts to serve heads of households upon demand. Domestic torts based upon the property right of masters of households to service provided by wives and children, as well as servants, linked treatment of different classes of women. <p>But because lower class women were not marriageable to elite men, their premarital chastity was not considered as valuable. Working class womens gender value was discounted; working class men were emasculated as potential heads of households, by economic instability interfering with marriage, the displacement of mens authority over wives to their employers, and the 1834 New Poor Law, which proposed removing wives and children from working class husbands and fathers when they went onto relief. De-gendering of lower class women and men was reflected in the difficulty that lower class men had in obtaining damages for domestic torts. Privileging of the bourgeois with respect to gender contributed to the failure of feminist and labour movements to cement a political alliance. Industrial-era rape doctrines were ultimately applied to all women rape complainants, regardless of class status, and became the basis for the anti-victim rape laws which second wave feminists analyzed and opposed. Modern rape law still presents women with similar challenges, based upon rape myths like Stranger Danger.

When Fitzroy Legal Service (FLS) opened in December 1972 as the first non-Aboriginal community legal centre in Australia, Its volunteer workers posed a radical critique of the legal system and of the legal profession. They depicted both to be intricately involved in the oppression of Australians on low incomes. In a bid to combat this oppression, FLS developed two broad objectives: to provide free and accessible legal assistance, and to operate as a medium of social change. The adoption and pursuit of these at times contradictory aims amounted to an attempt by FLS volunteers to marry the politics of the New Left to the workings of the law. The adoption of these aims also meant that FLS would be involved, at a very practical level, in the debate concerning the relationship between the law and social change in Australia. / In the years after its formation, the radical critique once posed by FLS dissipated. This occurred primarily because the State, n the form of the Whitlam Government moved to accommodate the most persuasive criticisms that FLS workers had of the legal system. The Whitlam Government’s creation of a new legal aid system in 1973, the high profile taken by FLS workers in debates about legal aid and the fact that FLS received government funding were all crucial to FLS’s increasingly accepted status as a part albeit an unusual one of the legal profession. / Notwithstanding this acceptance, FLS workers have continued to pursue the organisation's two original aims. As a result of this FLS has continued to draw clients and workers to the Service, while at the same time it has continued to operate as an effective social critic.

A different kind of ‘subject:’ Aboriginal legal status and colonial law in Western Australia, 1829-1861. This thesis is an examination of the nature and application of the policy regarding the legal status and rights of Aboriginal people in Western Australia from 1829 to 1861. It describes the extent of the debates and the role of British law that arose after conflict between Aboriginal people and settlers in the context of political and economic contests between settlers and government on land issues. While the British government continually maintained that the legal basis for annexation was settlement, by the mid 1830s Stirling regarded it as an ‘invasion,’ but was neither prepared to accept that Aboriginal people had to consent to the imposition of British law upon them, nor to formally recognise their rights as the original owners of the land. Instead, Stirling’s government applied an archaic form of outlawry to Aboriginal people who resisted the invasion. This was despite proposals for agreements in the 1830s. During the early 1840s there was a temporary legal pluralism in Western Australia where Indigenous laws were officially recognised. However, by the mid 1840s the administration of British law in Western Australia was increasingly dictated by settler interests and mounting settler-magistrate pressure to modify the legal position of Aboriginal people which resulted in the development of colonial law to construct a landless subject status with minimal rights based on their value as a useful labour force for the pastoral economy. This separate legal status deliberately departed from ‘equality’ principles and corresponded with the diminished status of Indigenous laws and the abandonment of legal pluralism in settled districts, during a period of rapid pastoral expansion in the 1850s. This entrenched discriminatory practice in colonial law would be the prelude to the ‘protectionist’ and discriminatory legislation of the early twentieth century which formalised inequality of legal status.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Abstract. Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 114-124).

Thesis (Ed. D.)--Auburn University, 2008. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-124). Also available online.