The flexibility of long-term investment contracts is a benefit to both an investor and the state for mitigating the effect of an unforeseeable event which negatively impacts on the viability of the contract. However, the aspect of sanctity of contract has often prompted rigid provisions with the underlying rationale that this gives investors security and predictability. In contrast, by virtue of the principle of fundamental change of circumstances, new trend has come to life in the field of extractive industries consisting of inclusion in the contract a provision that provides for renegotiation or adaptation of the existing agreement. The reasoning behind the adoption technique is that parties should not be obliged to carry on a performance which would be unjustly onerous or fruitless due to a supervening unregulated event. The main criticism of this approach is that the claim for renegotiating an existing agreement which contains no renegotiation clause or insistence on a third party intervention for adapting such a contract amount to an undue interference. However, the manner in which contracts are negotiated in countries that exhibit poor governance or situation of army conflict challenges this view. The question asked is whether an unfair contract concluded with unelected government or leaders of military factions and subject to corruption can be allowed to survive without being revised. The DRC, realizing this problem, undertook to renegotiate some of its mining contracts with specific objectives, such as; investor respect of legislation, use of local resources, social responsibility clauses, and evaluation of the input of the partners taking into account the equity shareholding with the public party holding not less than 51%. This has resulted in the termination and cancellation of certain contracts. Aggrieved investors filed several proceedings, but they dropped them, privileging an amicable settlement. Besides, the outcome of the renegotiation suggests that Congolese negotiators have not fully achieved the objectives set out at the start of the process. Against this backdrop, the dissertation found that the Congolese mining sector is governed by a broad range of regulations and corresponding supervisory bodies. Constant suspicions of illegally mining exploitation prevail on the sector as a result of the ill enforcement of the aforesaid regulations, corruption and mismanagement. This study also found that renegotiating an existing agreement is a common practice in commercial contracts. Major systems of law have dealt with when they confronted with the issue related to the non-performance of a contractual obligation. The stability of the contractual terms is must but, at the same time, a certain degree of flexibility is necessary to allow parties to adjust their relationship in case of imperfections, cultural differences or supervening of unforeseen events. However, to be effective, the renegotiation mechanism must be regulated for not fuelling unlimited demand of adaptation, therefore, instability of the contract. The renegotiation of mining contacts in DRC was extremely politicised. However, both investor and Congolese sides have benefited from that differently. The Congolese government gave preference to short-term profits result to the expenses of the long-term improvements. By comparison, the majority of investors have secured their assets. Others have even increased them. An examination of the amended agreement that have been disclosed so far reveals that a lot issues remain unresolved, particularly with regard to the reasons that prompted the renegotiation. Moreover, parties to the aforesaid process did not attempt to regulate future demands of adaptation. Based on these findings, the recommendation of the dissertation is that future mining agreements should include a renegotiation clause and regulate the intervention of a third party. The Congolese government should endeavour to lessen political interference throughout mining contract negotiations. It should also build negotiation skills among its representatives involved in that process. Investors should increase among them awareness of corporate social responsibility standards for preventing illegal exploitation of mining resources which, ultimately, results in triggering unilateral contract adjustment. The remaining issues in connection with the amended agreements should be resolved amicably for this approach is more likely to bring mutual satisfaction to both the Congolese state and investors. / Dissertation (LLM)--University of Pretoria, 2013. / Centre for Human Rights / unrestricted

Mining companies operating in developing countries like the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) have come under increasing public criticism for not only failing to bring benefits to the country in which they operate but for often making the situation even worse through adverse environmental and social impacts. The particular focus of this treatise is the social division that a new mining project can generate between the operating company and the community living on or near to the mine site. In one area in north-eastern DRC, a large multinational mining company, AngloGold Ashanti, plans to develop a gold mine. While there have been no manifest conflicts between the company and the host community, there is evident latent conflict in the form of uncertainty and mistrust between parties. Although the company is engaged in two different models of companycommunity participation, this has either resulted in or failed to prevent tensions between the company and the local community. This research offers an exploration and discussion of the existing models of company-community participation as a conflict management strategy. With reference to relevant research and literature, as well as other available models for company-community participation, this treatise will provide a series of recommendations as to how the existing models could be made more effective in managing conflict.

This thesis seeks to advance a new hypothesis for addressing retranslations, namely that the traditional explanation according to which translations become outdated and must be renewed can no longer account for all the aspects of the retranslation phenomenon. I propose to view retranslation as a means of transforming documents into monuments, of unearthing the mass of elements they contain and of making them relevant to the present and to the future. Retranslations become a source of inspiration for original philosophical texts, hence new philosophical trends or schools of thought, and for commentaries on the translation and its agents, all of which reflect the place and time where they emerge, thus shaping symbols of self-representation, collective consciousness, memory, and identity. I test this hypothesis through the exploration of 20th century Modern Greek retranslations of Plato’s Republic and through the examination of the diachronic and synchronic values of key political and philosophical elements of Plato’s system within the retranslations. These retranslations reflect not only how Plato’s philosophy is perceived by the modern Greek philosophical and political environment, but also whether they represent and prolong the canonical discourse on classical philosophy or introduce a more critical turn. I explore a case of a philosophical text whereby key elements of the Republic become a source of inspiration to answer basic questions of justice and polity from a modern point of view. I conclude that retranslations project the aspirations, fears, and values of the time and space in which they emerge while using the openness of the text to add extra layers of interpretation and meaning. Almost all retranslations and their corresponding paratext maintain a consistent referential relationship with one another and with other political and philosophical texts produced during the same period. The link that ties these texts together is not necessarily chronological. It also depends on the discursive approach adopted; the translator’s political or philosophical affiliation; the degree of canonicity of each translation and translator, and the prevailing ideologies of the society in which retranslations emerge. A classical work can become either a vibrant document used to promote, sustain, and revive dominant discourses on politics, national identity or philosophy or, alternately, a reactionary document that voices concerns over the relevance of the canonical or traditional discourse with which the original is equated.

This thesis examines Canada’s imposition of a visa requirement on visitors from the Czech Republic. By analyzing articles in three major Canadian newspapers, I conduct an Althusserian (theory that “culture ventures” are part of the Ideological State Apparatus), analysis. The thesis demonstrates that a dominant ideological viewpoint – a pro-capitalist ideology supported by a racist ideology – was evident in the coverage in all three newspapers. Additionally, this thesis addresses the presence of more ‘even-handed’ discussions of the conditions of the Roma, including experiences of racism and discrimination in the Czech Republic. I conclude that the newspapers present ideological views, with occasional exceptions.

The capital-output ratio has been widely used by economists and econometricians in model building for policy purposes in both developed and developing countries. Particularly in the developing economies, where planning has been an important feature of economic policy, the projection of output and investment requirements in different sectors is often based on the capital-output ratio. In the First Five-Year Plan of the United Arab Republic (U.A.R.), planners have basically used the incremental capital-output ratio for broad general sectors to derive investment requirements therein. The plan's realizations fell short of the target. This was natural and to be expected in a first effort to plan economic development. However, this raises many important questions. Was the discrepancy between the realization and the target in the First Five-Year Plan due to the very nature of the capital-output ratio technique itself? To what extent did changing external conditions lead to such discrepancy? In order to attempt an answer to these questions, it is necessary to be aware of the meaning, limitations and problems of measuring the capital-output ratio. This is the subject matter of Chapter II. Chapter III is devoted to searching the answers to the question raised in the previous paragraph. The trend of the capital-output ratio is vitally important for the developing countries with scarce capital. This is because the higher is that ratio, the more investment will be needed to achieve a certain rate of growth. In our case: What is the likely trend of the capital-output ratio for U.A.R., and what are its implications for the future development of the country? Specifically, will the country face increasing, or diminishing, problems in the future as far as capital financing is concerned? Chapter IV will attempt to frame an answer to these questions based on both, theoretical argument and empirical evidence. / Arts, Faculty of / Vancouver School of Economics / Graduate

The purpose of this paper is to analyse external economic stability of the Czech Republic. The external economic stability is defined and basic theory related to especially intertemporal approach to external balances is reviewed. Special consideration is given to the transition character of the economy. The descriptive as well as econometric analysis (VAR and cointegration models) find that the Czech Republic is not dangerously imbalanced. A potential threat is found to be reresented by government budget deficits due to the problem of twin deficits.

The aim of my diploma thesis was to describe the situation in the sphere of mutual tourism between the Ukraine and the Czech Republic and to refer to a possible trend in the future. The outputs should be useful mainly for people, who work in the sphere of tourism. The Ukraine is becoming stronger recently and the effective demand of Ukrainian people is going up, too. Over the way the Ukrainian is becoming a popular destination for tourism.

The main aim of this thesis is to answer the question how the security of the Czech Republic was solved during the Cold War and after it, with the emphasis on the time period after 1989 and the development of the relationship between the Czech Republic and NATO. Special attention is drawn to the political discussion in the Czech Republic before its accession to NATO in 1999.

Main subject of this work characterisation of PPP projects and barriers that inhibit application of PPP projects in Czech Republic. First there are characterised main concepts as public sector and his mission in providing public goods and services. Attention is also paid to characterization of PPP projects and to the differences between providing public goods and services through PPP scheme or by traditional way. Afterwards there is described the whole process of preparation and implementation of a PPP project including the key moments, that can't be ignored. If ignored, it could cause incorrigible faults in the implementation phase. This work also includes analysis of interviews made with a view to find out, how are Czech citizens informed about PPP projects. The produces of this work serve as basis for setting strategy and policy, which should be observed. Otherwise there is a risk that the project won't be finished successfully with positive public evaluation.

The main idea of this diploma thesis is to investigate the influence of the selected Czech airports on tourism. The first part of this thesis is an analysis of international and domestic tourism in the Czech Republic. The next section investigates selected airports focusing on those which provide tourism services to the areas. The last part of this thesis shows the influence of airport costs and location on the inflow and outflow of tourists. This part also looks into the preference of the population being served by the airports.