This thesis deals with the Regulation (EU) No 650/2012 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 4 July 2012 on jurisdiction, applicable law, recognition and enforcement of decisions and acceptance and enforcement of authentic instruments in matters of succession and on the creation of a European Certificate of Succession (regulation on succession). This regulation will be applicable in the matters of successions with cross-border implications of people who will decease on 17 August 2015 or later. Regulation on succession unifies legislation in matters of succession with cross-border implications, both in terms of substantive law and procedural law. This regulation has been expected for a long time in the European Union because the succession matters were expressly excluded from the scope of other regulations. Also thanks to the free movement of persons, the unification of this area of law is becoming more necessary from day to day. The preparation of this regulation and the connected discussions lasted several years. Not only for the numerous differences between the national rules of the Member States but also for the intention to create a complete unification of the substantive law, the succession proceedings itself and of the recognition, enforceability and enforcement of decisions. In...

The law of succession is a branch of civil law that deals with devolution of property rights and duties of a decedent to his heirs. The new Civil Code that came into force in 2014 brought considerable changes in the field of the law of succession. Finally, the legal regulation pays proper attention to the law of succession and testate succession. After more than sixty years, there were restored legal institutions such as Clauses of lesser importance in a testament (condition, determination of time or a mandate), inheritance contract, privileged wills, legacy, vulgar substitution or fideicommissum. Not only because of these institutions can a testator finally organize freely and according to his own will his property situation mortis causa. The purpose of my diploma thesis is to analyze the testate succession according to the Czech Civil code that became effective on the 1st of January 2014. The thesis is divided into two parts. The first part is split into five chapters that deal with individual prerequisites of succession. The prerequisites of succession are as follows: the death of a testator, the existence of a decedent's estate, the capacity of an heir to inherit, the legal ground of succession and the acceptance/non-refusal of inheritance. Meeting all prerequisites of succession is crucial to...

The thesis debates one of the modes of succession, namely testamentary succession. A testament is, in accordance with Law No. 89/2012 of the Civil Code, one of the dispositions mortis causa. Inheritance contract and testamentary clause on legacy, along with testament, belong among dispositions mortis causa according to the law cited. The deceased exercises his or her will through such. The target of this work is to describe the current form of testamentary succession in its effective rule, focusing on facultative elements of a testament. The work is divided into six chapters. The opening chapter contains a discussion on succession rights, first in general and then the requirements of the creation of succession rights follow, as well as the other inheritance titles in their effective rule. The second chapter defines a brief excursion into the Roman law. In the subchapters, individual testament forms in the Roman law, testamentary competence, succession against testament, revocation and nullity of testament are included. The third chapter deals with testamentary succession itself; it is divided into eight subchapters. The first subchapter defines the term of testament. The following two subchapters deal with legal competence and the effects of error. The testament form is defined in the fourth subchapter. In...

V ANGLICKÉM JAZYCE The aim of my thesis was to carry out a detailed analysis of one of the most important institutions of the law of succession - testament. My secondary objective was to compare briefly the Czech legislation of testament with the legislation of Germany, which was one of the sources of inspiration for the Czech recodification works. Legislation of this institute after the adoption of the Civil Code significantly transformed and strengthened the testing freedom of the testator. Testament is one of the three forms of testamentary disposition that make it possible for the testator to decide how his property is going to be managed after his death. The first of the six chapters deals generally with law of succession, explains the key terms, concepts and important leading principles. Furthermore this chapter presents various prerequisites of inheritance and generally characterizes and defines the institute of testament. In the second chapter, I am aiming to outline the historical development of testament which roots can be tracked back to Roman law. In the following subchapters I am describing the legislation changes of this institution in our country with particular attention to the ABGB, another important source of inspiration, and also to the form of the institute in the period of...

Abstract This thesis operates at two levels of ecological research, describing the effects of withdrawal and re-introduction of management on grasslands. The aim of the community-level survey was to explore the effects of abandonment, mowing and grazing on semi-natural meadows in northern Finland. At the species level, the aim was to evaluate the responses of three monocarpic meadow species to various degrees of simulated grazing under natural growth conditions. The community-level studies suggest that strongly competitive grass species with rapid vegetative growth, especially those forming tussocks, are able to retain or increase their cover in abandoned meadows. However, most species are able to persist in a meadow for a long time after abandonment, even when a group of immigrants arrive. This leads to a temporary increase in species diversity, and it may therefore be used as an indicator of ongoing succession. Nevertheless, abandonment is harmful for the rare archaeophytic species in the long run. Late mowing does not have extensive short-term impacts on grass-dominated semi-natural meadows. Therefore, it is neither an efficient nor a substitutional way of management when the goal is to restore a formerly grazed pasture. Mowing executed early in the season may, however, be a more appropriate way of inducing changes in species composition and enhancing species richness. According to the results of the species-level studies, Erysimum strictum and Rhinanthus minor tolerate well minor apical damage, while more severe damage has a detrimental impact on the performance of both species. The observed differences in regrowth responses between the two species are presumably due to their different habitat requirements in relation to competition. The species-level experiment with two late-flowering populations of field gentian Gentianella campestris ssp. campestris revealed that the southern, Swedish population that has been regularly grazed and mown overcompensated for the intermediate (50%) damage level, whereas the northern, Finnish field gentians growing in unmanaged habitats showed at best partial or full compensation. Regular grazing and mowing have presumably favoured grazing-tolerant plant species, i.e. species with a good regrowth capacity. Herbivory reshapes grassland plant communities in two ways: directly by affecting the survival and reproductive success of individual plants and indirectly by changing the competitive environment. Tall and competitive perennial species suffer relatively more from damage than true grassland species, i.e. small herbs and grasses, which are better able to tolerate regular tissue losses and respond to damage within the ongoing growing season. As a result, certain species benefit from grazing and mowing in the sense that they may gain more through competitive relaxation than they lose in defoliation.

Master of Agribusiness / Department of Agricultural Economics / Gregg L. Hadley / XYZ Farms, a family farming operation located in Northeast Iowa, has been in business since 1924. Currently the operation utilizes 1,300 acres of farm ground to produce corn, soybeans and alfalfa and feeds 3,000 head of hogs and 500 head of cattle annually. The family operation has evolved over the years and has passed ownership down within the family from generation to generation. It has come time that the operation’s current owners are looking to retire and peacefully transition the family operation on to the next generation. A non-conventional case study structure will highlight and assess the history of the family operation and introduce them to current practices and ownership. The purpose of this study is to evaluate and create a feasible transition plan for XYZ Farms, while minimizing the social and economic costs associated with farm business succession. Further analysis will allow the operation to identify and utilize a succession planning framework, which is important for farm families to possess when looking to build and begin the planning process. Quantitative, along with qualitative, analysis are utilized to understand the operations need for succession planning and the feasibility of doing so. Findings indicate that it is advantageous to work through a sound succession plan including an open line of communication with both current and future owners of the operation. The ability to have upfront conversations and meetings will allow for the discussion of the operation’s future between both parties involved. By implementing a sound and feasible succession plan, XYZ Farms will be able to continue to be a family owned and operated farm for many years to come.

No abstract available / Dissertation (MA (Old Testament Studies))--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Old Testament Studies / unrestricted

Wildfire is the primary natural disturbance in Interior Cedar-Hemlock (ICH) forests, and since the mid-20th century, forest harvesting (clearcutting, in this case) has become the primary anthropogenic disturbance type. Forest management in British Columbia is currently governed by a paradigm that maintains that biological diversity can be preserved by utilizing forest harvesting regimes that closely mimic "natural" disturbance regimes, but a question remains as to how closely these regimes mimic wildfire disturbances. More specifically, how do clearcutting and wildfires compare in their effects on the structure and composition of early-successional ICH plant communities? This study compares vegetation structure, composition, relative abundance and diversity among 39 sites that experienced either a stand-replacing fire or a clearcut within the last 40 years. Sites of different ages and disturbance types were located within the wet cool ICHwkl and very-wet cool ICHvk I biogeoclimatic variants near Revelstoke, B.C. For each site, overstory structural characteristics (tree and snag diameters, basal area and density), overstory composition, and surface fuels (volume of coarse woody debris (CWD)) were assessed. Understory vegetation percent cover, species richness, composition and diversity were also determined. Linear regression analysis was used to examine differences in each of these variables between disturbance types, over time. The trends in structural legacies (especially snag and CWD dynamics) varied greatly between wildfire and clearcut sites. Compared to burned sites, clearcut sites exhibited patterns of accelerated succession in several characteristics (overstory tree regeneration, vegetation cover and understory species richness) due to planting treatments and pre-disturbance relicts. Understory species composition also varied between disturbances, with clearcut sites containing more shade-tolerant survivors initially. Both disturbance types had similar levels of floristic diversity during early succession. These results suggest that clearcut harvesting may not emulate stand-replacing fires in terms of impact on early ICH plant succession in any aspect but diversity. However, it is unclear if these early-successional differences will continue through time. There is a need for further research in this ecosystem, as well as any other ecosystems where emulation silviculture is applied, in order to confirm that silvicultural effects mimic those of natural disturbance regimes. / Forestry, Faculty of / Graduate

Family businesses are major contributors to the economies of most countries and are known to be one of the best performing, most prevalent and resilient forms of business throughout the world. Despite their importance and based on the vast amount of research done in the field of family businesses, this form of business appears to be laden with challenges and is short-lived. Amongst others, one of the most fundamental challenges and contributors to the short-lived nature, and thus high failure rate of family businesses is poor succession planning. In order to address this challenge, the Successful Transgenerational Entrepreneurship Practices (STEP) research framework was developed to ascertain the factors that contribute to entrepreneurial performance and the effective transgenerational potential and success of family businesses globally. Transgenerational potential, entrepreneurial performance, the external mediating factors influencing family businesses, Entrepreneurial Orientation (EO) and the Resource Based View (RBV) of familiness resource pools are the components that make up the STEP research framework. By adopting the STEP research framework, the primary objective of this study is to establish how a transgenerational family business creates new economic activity over time by using and transferring familiness resource pools from one generation to the next. Due to the primary focus of the study being to research familiness resource pools and how they generate transgenerational potential for family businesses, this component of the STEP research framework is investigated in detail. The literature review therefore highlights the eight dimensions of familiness resource pools, namely: leadership, networks, capital, decision-making, culture, relationships, governance and knowledge, and are the main focus of this study. An interpretivism research paradigm is selected for this study. Interpretivism paradigms are associated with qualitative research methodologies. Owing to the fact that much still remains to be discovered in terms of familiness and familiness resource pools, a descriptive, single-case study is the type of research method undertaken. The sample is identified based on non-probability purposive sampling as per the strict guidelines of the STEP project. The sample size in this study consisted of one family business operating in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. The STEP interview schedule, which consists of semi-structured questions, is the research instrument used to collect the necessary data from five participants involved in the family business (a prominent motorcar dealership). Once all the data is collected, a combination of directed content analysis and explanation building are used to analyse the data. The findings of the study reveal that the leadership values present in the family business stem from that of the founder. Contrary to the current CEO’s beliefs that the family business investigated operates primarily under his participative leadership style, the interviews reveal that while the CEO does demonstrate participative leadership, his leadership style is somewhat autocratic in nature. This autocratic leadership style has caused the employees and the business as a whole, to become too reliant on the CEO, especially in terms of strategic decision-making, which may be a threat to the future succession of the business. The CEO’s expert leadership however, ensures that the business adheres to strict guidelines in terms of employing the best person for the job, regardless of whether the candidates are family members or not. As such, the prominent motorcar dealership is marketed as a family business and together under the family leadership, has helped attract customers and well qualified non-family employees to the business. While there is ample leadership available within the business, the lack of succession planning is reiterated to be a major threat facing the future of the business. Almost all of the original networks established by the founder in the prominent motorcar dealership studied still exist in the business in 2014. It is established that employees, especially those in the third generation, are encouraged to build their own networks within their relevant spheres of responsibility. Moreover, the business family’s history, reputation and goodwill have helped create and establish networks for the family business, especially within the Eastern Cape. These networks have helped the business drive sales and have contributed to the success of the business.

Family businesses are prevalent in South Africa and throughout the world. Succession is one of the largest challenges facing family businesses. It has been estimated that only one third of family businesses survive to the second generation. This study attempts to determine what the main features are to promote successful family business succession and continuity. The family chosen for this research is the Venter family. The research has scaled the various influencing variables from the literature review into the following focus areas: relationships, conflict, vision, effective succession characteristics and continuity. The findings reflect many instances found in the literature, some are: individuals can manage themselves and have relationships with others; have the ability to resolve conflicts; have mutual support and trust; there is respect between the founder and successor; the business vision is clear; communication is open and clear and decisions are based on expertise and knowledge. Many other aspects are highlighted in the research that follows. In addition, the study attempts to identify the generational effects, the major characteristics of the family owned succession process and the views of the predecessors on the succession process and the post succession period.