This study explored the question whether forensic social work meets the requirements set by the South African Council for Social Service Professions (SACSSP) for registration as a specialist field. The requirements are as follows: • It should be an identifiable and definable field in social work. • It should not be a form of intervention. • It should include a distinctive field of social work and not be shared with other professions. • It requires specialized knowledge, skills and experience from the social worker. It has been concluded that forensic social work does indeed meet the requirements for registration and it is recommended that it be registered as such. / Thesis (M.A. (MW Forensic))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2009.

Abstract Service user involvement in service and policy development is vital in order to provide services that meet their needs. In the sensitive and challenging area of statutory child protection, where service users are often marginalized and disempowered, such involvement is likely to be contested and complex. It is, nonetheless, of great importance in order to provide effective responses to the protective needs of children and to the needs of their families, in order to ensure child safety. This qualitative study explores the participation of parents in statutory child protection policy processes in the state of Queensland, Australia. The aims of the study were to understand the Queensland statutory child protection policy context, and to explore the issue of parent participation in policy processes from a number of different perspectives. An analysis of a range of Department of Child Safety (DChS) policy related documents, from the period 1999 – 2007, was undertaken. Focus group interviews were undertaken with statutory child protection practitioners and policy officers, and with non government child and family welfare practitioners. Individual semi structured interviews were undertaken with a number of parents who are statutory child protection service users. What has emerged is a picture of a service system where parents are likely to be excluded at all levels of decision making. The study found that following inquiries into the failure of the service system, in particular the Crime and Misconduct Commission Inquiry (CMC), DChS has emerged as an individualistic child focused service system with a focus on forensic investigation, risk assessment and management, and with a corresponding loss of focus on family support. The findings indicate that how DChS has redefined its approach to child protection impacts significantly on how parents are engaged by the service system. They highlight inequities in the way service user participation rights have been incorporated into policy and enacted in practice, and the lack of recognition afforded parents as service users and stakeholders in the service system. The findings also suggest that DChS policy processes are focused more on progressing reform agendas and efficient service delivery than they are on service user involvement. Negative portrayals and perceptions of parents, and a perceived lack of understanding of the nexus between disadvantage and child welfare, were also found to contribute to their exclusion. The parent interviews provided valuable insights into their experiences of the service system, indicating the sorts of issues they are likely to bring to the policy table. However, the findings illustrate that they lack the necessary information, support and encouragement to participate, and their experiences of the service system have left them mistrustful of engaging in policy processes, should the opportunity arise. Overall, the findings show that while there is likely to be a number of benefits to parent participation in policy processes, and parents themselves have an interest in participating, there are many barriers to this. While a few potential strategies to engage parents in policy processes were identified, these were often also perceived to have limitations. It is considered that a comprehensive socio-structural approach would be needed in order to reposition parents as participators in policy and service development.

Magister Artium (Social Work) - MA(SW) / The role of statutory social workers is often misperceived by other role players in interdisciplinary teams; but even more so in the law fraternity spectrum. As such, social workers experience many challenges working with attorneys, magistrates and court clerks because they are often undermined by their counterparts in the interdisciplinary team. This places great strain on professional relationships in settings where these professions are required to work collaboratively, such as statutory services with children and families. Therefore, the aim of this study was to understand the role of the social worker in the interdisciplinary team providing statutory services to children and families in the Cape Metropole. The theoretical framework selected for this study is conflict theory, because it is suited to explain the often-strenuous relationship between social workers and the rest of the interdisciplinary team in the law fraternity.

Le droit des sociétés est marqué par un phénomène de "contractualisation", lequel témoigne de la multiplication de l'aménagement des rapports entre associés, qu'il concerne les modalités de direction de la société ou l'exercice de leurs prérogatives et obligations. Ces aménagements peuvent revêtir deux formes : l'une statutaire, l'autre extrastatutaire. L'étude du statutaire et de l'extrastatutaire en droit des sociétés se consacre donc à la comparaison de ces deux formes d'aménagement et propose d'identifier leurs deux traits caractéristiques : une finalité commune et un caractère distinct.Les actes statutaires et extrastatutaires partagent une finalité commune : ils concourent à la réalisation de l'opération sociétaire. Parmi tous les actes relatifs à la société, ils se caractérisent par leur but qui est de permettre à leurs signataires de satisfaire leurs intérêts spécifiques par le truchement de l'intérêt social, à savoir par la réalisation d'une entreprise commune en vue de l'enrichissement collectif des associés. Cette finalité commune exerce alors une influence sur leur régime juridique car les actes statutaires comme ceux extrastatutaires sont soumis aux règles du droit des sociétés. Cette influence se mesure surtout à l'égard des actes sociétaires extrastatutaires, lesquels sont tenus de respecter l'ordre public sociétaire, sont soumis à la lex societatis en droit international privé et relèvent de la compétence des tribunaux de commerce dans les sociétés commerciales. Même s'ils partagent une finalité commune qui permet leur rattachement à la catégorie des conventions sociétaires, les actes statutaires et ceux extrastatutaires n'en demeurent pas moins distincts. Classiquement, ces deux types d'actes sont distingués en considération d'un critère formel, à savoir selon leur localisation dans le document dénommé statuts ou à l'extérieur de celui-ci, mais celui-ci ne permet pas de saisir l'essence de cette distinction. Plus fondamentalement, il doit être distingué entre les aménagements du statut d'associé, applicable à toute personne ayant la qualité d'associé, et ceux extérieurs au statut, lesquels ne sont que l'expression des engagements personnels des associés et applicables à leurs seuls signataires. Le caractère statutaire d'une stipulation emporte alors deux conséquences spécifiques. Parce que le statut d'associé a vocation à s'appliquer à tout associé de manière identique, il peut être modifié à la majorité. Cette règle doit cependant être appliquée en tenant compte des situations de conflit d'intérêts susceptibles de se présenter lors de la création de différentes catégories d'associé ou de l'octroi d'avantages particuliers. Parce que le statut d'associé a vocation à s'appliquer à tout associé présent et à venir, seules les stipulations statutaires s'appliquent à l'acquéreur de titres sociaux. / Corporate law is characterized by a trend of "contracting", which reflects the multiplication of the systems of relationship between partners, whether this involves the management rules of a company or the application of their rights and obligations. These systems can take two shapes: statutory or non-statutory. The study of statutory and non-statutory in corporate law is devoted to comparing these two forms and identifying their two key features: a common purpose and a distinct nature.Statutory and non-statutory acts share a joint purpose : they contribute to the accomplishment of the corporation. Among all acts in connection with a company, they are characterized by their purpose which aim to enable their signatories to meet their specific interests through the interest of the corporation, i.e. through a joint enterprise targeting the joint enrichment of the partners. This common purpose influences their legal regime because both statutory as well as non-statutory acts are subject to corporate law. This influence can be mainly felt towards non-statutory acts, which have to comply with the corporate public order, are governed by the lex societatis in international private law and fall under the competence of commercial courts in business corporations. Even though they share a common purpose which makes them fall under the category of corporate agreements, statutory and non-statutory acts remain distinct. Traditionally, these two sorts of acts can be distinguished by applying a formal criteria, namely whether they can be found in the document named articles of associations or outside of those, but this criteria doesn't express the essence of this distinction. More fundamentally, one has to distinguish between the adjustments of the partners' statutes, which apply to any partner, and those outside the statutes, which only represent the personal commitment of the partners and only apply to the signatories. The statutory nature of a clause triggers two specific consequences. Since the partner statute is meant to apply equally to all partners, it can be modified with a majority vote. However, this rule must take into account potential conflicts of interest which can arise when creating different categories of partners or when granting special benefits. Since the status of partner is destined to apply to all present and future partners, only statutory clauses apply to the purchaser of ownership shares.

This thesis is dedicated to legal regulation of statutory audit in the European Union, Russian Federation and the Czech Republic. The first chapter describes history of audit, its functions and objectives. The second chapter is dedicated to legal regulation of statutory audit in the European Union, mainly to Directive 2006/43/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council and to Regulation (EU) No 537/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council. The third chapter outlines legal regulation of statutory audit in the Czech Republic, which is created primarily by the act No 93/2009 about auditors. The fourth chapter defines legal regulation of statutory audit in the Russian Federation, mainly the act "On auditing activities" No 307. The last chapter compares separate legal regulations.

I Sveriges Riksdag togs år 2016 ett beslut om lagändring som tvingar stora företag att lämna hållbarhetsrapporter och att låta företagets revisor granska rapporten. Det nya området som revisorer ställs inför, att granska hållbarhetsrapporter enlig lag, är ett outvecklat område där revisorer har lite erfarenhet. En revisor kan aldrig granska all information som företagen presenterar i sina rapporter och därför kan revisorn först anses klar med sin revision när han eller hon känner sig komfortabel. Ett tillstånd av komfort grundar sig i individens känsla för när han eller hon är klar med sin granskning.     Syftet med denna studie är att bidra med en ökad förståelse för vad det är som gör en revisor komfortabel i sin lagstadgade granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter. För att uppfylla syftet har vi valt att göra en kvalitativ undersökning, i form av intervjuer och en kompletterande dokumentstudie, som grundar sig på en abduktiv analysstrategi. Som teoretisk utgångspunkt har vi valt att använda oss av Carrington och Catasús (2007) studie om revision som komfort samt begreppen: revisorsprofessionen och granskningsprocessen.     Resultatet av denna studie visar på att revisorer till stor del uppnår komfort i granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter genom att samarbeta med kollegor eller hållbarhetsspecialister. Revisorerna har generellt interna dokument att följa vilket gör att de tydligt vet när de kan känna sig klara och komfortabla med sin granskning. Antalet revisorer som utför denna typ av granskning är begränsat och därför finns det behov av mer forskning på detta område i framtiden när mer erfarenhet av lagstadgad granskning av hållbarhetsrapporter finns hos revisorsprofessionen. / In the Swedish Parliament, in the year of 2016, a decision was made to amend the law, which forces large companies to submit sustainability reports and forces the company's auditor to review the report. The new area that auditors are faced with, to assure sustainability reports according to law, is an undeveloped area where auditors have little experience. An auditor can never review all information presented by the companies in their reports, and therefore the auditor can first be considered ready with the audit when he or she feels comfortable. A state of comfort is based on the individual's sense of when he or she is finished with his review.   The purpose of this study is to contribute with an increased understanding of what makes auditors comfortable in their assurance of sustainability reports. To fulfill the purpose, we have chosen to do a qualitative study, in the form of interviews and a document study, which is based on an abductive analysis strategy. As a starting point, we chose chose to use Carrington and Catasús (2007) study of audit as comfort as well as the concepts: the audit profession and the assurance process.   The result of this study shows, among other things, that auditors largely achieve comfort in reviewing sustainability reports by collaborating and taking the help of their colleagues or sustainability specialists. The auditors generally have internal documents to follow, which means that they clearly know when they can feel comfortable with their review. The number of auditors performing this type of review is limited and therefore there is a need for more research when the auditors have collected more experience in the area of statutory assurance of sustainability reports

Topic of this master thesis is forensic investigation and forms of economic crime which can be detected during the investigation. First chapter focuses on forensic investigation and its comparison with statutory audit. In the second chapter is performed analysis of forms of economic crime in the Czech Republic, Southern and Eastern Europe and globally. Knowledge from the previous chapters is applied to the real forensic investigation performed in the Czech Republic, forensic investigation of project OpenCard.

Syftet med uppsatsen är att beskriva och analysera hur slopandet av revisionsplikten har påverkat låneräntan för mikroföretag. För fem år sedan avskaffades revisionsplikten för småföretag, så kallade mikroföretag, vilket gör det intressant att studera vilka effekter denna lagändring har medfört. Syftet med lagändringen var att det skulle leda till en minskad administrativ börda och öka konkurrenskraften. Tidigare forskning har dock kommit fram till att denna lagändring medfört ökade kostnader så som ökade lånekostnader. En kvantitativ studie med en deduktiv ansats har genomförts på aktiva svenska mikroföretag. Datainsamlingen har skett från databasen Retriever Business och enbart fokuserat på finansiell data. Genom linjär multipel regression har företag studerats under perioden 2013-2012 samt 2010-2009. Studien har ett eklektiskt angreppssätt. Hypotesen har framställts utifrån teorier som agentteorin, intressentteorin, institutionell teori samt tidigare forskning. Det finns ett flertal bakomliggande faktorer som påverkar låneräntan. Studien har kunnat konstatera både signifikanta och icke-signifikanta samband. Det generella svaret på studiens frågeställning är att det finns andra faktorer än revisorn som påverkar låneräntan. Den individuella effekten av revisorn på låneräntan kunde inte konstateras. / The purpose of the thesis is to describe and analyze how the abolition of the statutory audit has affected the interest rate for micro firms. It has passed five years since the abolition of the statutory audit for small firms, also called micro firms, which makes it interesting to study the effects of this legislative act. The purpose of this legislation was to decrease the administrative burden and increase the competitiveness. Although, prior research has concluded that this legislative change has led to increased costs such as increased costs of borrowing. A quantitative study with a deductive approach has been made on operating Swedish micro firms. The dataset has been retrieved from the database Retriever Business and has only been focusing on financial data. Companies have been studied through a multiple linear regression for the time period 2013-2012 and 2010-2009. The thesis has an eclectic approach. The hypothesis has been developed through theories such as agency theory, stakeholder theory and institutional theory together with prior research. There are several underlying factors that affect the interest rate. The study has established both significant and non-significant relationships. The general answer to the study’s problem is that there are other factors than the auditor that affects the interest rate. The individual effect of the auditor on the interest rate could not be established.

This thesis considers interpretive provisions in human rights legislation in the United Kingdom (UK), New Zealand and two Australian jurisdictions: the Australian Capital Territory and the State of Victoria. It deals with the relationship between certain common law interpretive principles which protect human rights and the rules under the interpretive provisions. It also considers what effect the interpretive provisions have on the overall approach to statutory interpretation, particularly in terms of their impact on the roles of intention and purpose. One of the themes of the thesis is that it is possible to identify a common methodology for the application of the various interpretive provisions. This is facilitated by an emphasis on the concept of purpose, which is flexible and capable of being identified and applied at higher levels of abstraction than the concept of intention as commonly applied by the courts. Despite this common methodology, the results of attempts at legislative rights-consistent interpretation in the relevant jurisdictions differ. We shall see that the UK courts have taken a broader interpretive approach than have their New Zealand and Australian counterparts. This will be explained by reference to the respective contexts of the human rights legislation in each jurisdiction, particularly in terms of legislative history. It will be argued that the purpose of the UK legislation to provide remedies in domestic courts for breaches of the European Convention on Human Rights provides the basis for the UK courts’ approach. The absence of this factor is the primary point of distinction between the UK on the one hand, and New Zealand and Australia on the other, though other issues will be explored. Finally, while as a matter of the interpretation of the UK legislation, and especially of the relevant interpretive provision, the approach of the UK courts is defensible, the significant risk to the principle of legal certainty which it poses will be highlighted.

During the 20th century, numerous philosophers of science pointed out several problems afflicting scientific communication. Communication in accounting is also problematic. In both cases (science and accounting) there seems to be a tension between objectivism and subjectivism. The former emphasizes the objects of knowledge while the latter prefers to rely on the human subject. In science one of these approaches seems to prevail in different periods. In accounting there seems to be an oscillation or ambiguity between the two tendencies (subjectivism and objectivism) which remain side by side. A polarity seems to emerge as statutory disclosures are influenced by objectivism, while contextual disclosures are inclined towards subjectivism. With reference to the philosophy of Herman Dooyeweerd subjectivism and objectivism are interpreted as emphasizing certain modal aspects to the detriment of others. Although this problem can be regarded as the cause of many difficulties in annual reports, this article focuses on communication problems. It is suggested that a better approach can be adopted by paying attention to all the modal aspects, in particular to those which tend to be neglected under a certain approach (objectivism or subjectivism). The final sections of this article provide a few concrete examples of how to improve communication in corporate reports by taking into account the neglected modal aspects. / MPhil, North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2014