Recent corporate reporting history is well–known for its corporate failures and questionable accountancy practices, many of which caused the profession to be frowned upon. However, the splodge on the accounting profession?s reputation goes deeper than its corporate reporting failures. The scientific foundation thereof is also being questioned in academic circles. Even though accounting scholars have been trying to formulate foundational accounting theories, it has been the accounting regulators that have been more successful in promoting their versions of what accounting theory should be, which place a question mark on the legitimacy of current day accounting theory. This thesis aims to delve deeper into the foundational philosophies of accounting and its impact on the practice of accounting. With the current accounting globalisation efforts, the profession?s stewardship function is becoming less prominent in its promulgated standards, which in turn brings the focus on the many questionable ethical practices found in the profession. Even though the regulatory bodies require their members to commit themselves to professional codes of conduct, which entails competency, integrity, objectivity and confidentiality, the 1st article in this thesis claims that ethical conduct is more than mere adherence to rules and regulations. It is also about the image of not only the profession, but also accounting research and education. Accounting is broadly practised, researched and taught within its so–called conceptual framework, of which a key objective is to guide and inform accounting practice. The conceptual framework became the basis upon which accounting theory is based. However, many accounting scholars are openly critical of presenting accounting theory as a set of practical guidelines. The 2nd article in the thesis concludes that, from an academic perspective, accounting theory should be based on three quintessential guidelines. The first of which is its primary purpose of reporting on the historic economic events, secondly the provision of useable and comparable information about these events and finally, the facilitation of business decisions based on relevant and reliable information. In the above mentioned business decisions, the concept of value is often taken for granted and many accounting techniques? effectiveness is judged on how well it approximates an item?s value. The 3rd article argues that the multiple purposes for which accounting information is used complicates the issue of value, as reported by accounting. Two key conflicting valuation perspectives are the so–called decision–usefulness and true income perspectives. The current drive towards fair value accounting, as opposed to historic cost accounting, cast doubts on the reliability and relevance of accounting information. Even though it may be argued that value–based techniques are more relevant because it is a better reflection of the current business conditions, the mere subjective nature thereof and the accountant?s objective valuation skills make the true relevance of this information questionable. Furthermore, mixed model valuations found in financial statements makes cross–company information unreliable. Accountancy research of the past four decades focussed on the concept of user decision–usefulness. The user is also pre–eminent in the globalisation of accounting standards of the FASB and the IASB, where users are specified as the equity investors, lenders and capital providers. The 4th article acknowledges that although these user categories are important consumers of the financial data, there are other users which are also impacted by the financial information and the company?s operational performances. There are also concerns over accounting?s key assumptions, such as its quantification and predictive abilities, which are fundamental to the decision–usefulness objective. Furthermore, there are questions around how the regulators decided what information is suppose to be useful and what type of utility is being sought. In summary, the focus on the vocational aspects of accountancy stands in contrast to claims of accounting as an academic discipline in the social sciences. The reality is that the practices of the profession will probably always play a central role in what is taught at university level, and the regulators, as the final authority on accounting standards, will probably remain dictatorial in promulgating their versions of accounting theory. Yet, accounting and its wide spread impact on society, makes it a key discipline within the economical and management sciences. It is therefore essential for the resurrection of accounting as a social scientific discipline that there is a return to foundational accounting research that will prepare (and enable) prospective practitioners and academics to question the status quo and push back on accounting practices that are threatening to extinguish the flame of accounting scholarship. / Thesis (Ph.D. (Accounting))--North-West University, Potchefstroom Campus, 2011.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the right to confidentiality in the context of HIV/AIDS through an interdisciplinary lens. This study indicates that whilst confidentiality is important and should be preserved in order to protect persons living with HIV/AIDS against stigmatisation, discrimination and victimisation, this should be balanced by other equally important interests, such as the protection of public health and individual third parties who may be affected by the intentional or negligent infection of others with HIV. As the consideration of the legal issues relating to confidentiality and privacy cannot be divorced from the social context in which HIV/AIDS plays out in South African communities, the study will examine, amongst others, the victimisation, discrimination and stigmatisation experienced by persons living with HIV/AIDS, followed by a critical exploration of the present legal and ethical framework governing privacy and confidentiality, including medical confidentiality, as well as the duty to disclose a positive HIV-status, in the context of HIV/AIDS. Possible limitations on the right to privacy in this context are also examined, which include, amongst others, a consideration of making HIV/AIDS notifiable diseases in South Africa. The study suggests that it is imperative that legal interventions aimed at curbing the spread of HIV will need to be mindful of the unique social, cultural and economic forces that impact on the duty to disclose a positive HIV-status to partners and other affected third parties. Insights gained from philosophical theories relating to Africanism, individualism, communitarianism and utilitarianism are valuable tools in facilitating a clearer understanding of relevant social and cultural factors that keep South African society locked in the present stalemate with regard to the disclosure of HIV status. / Public, Constitutional, and International law / LLD

The diploma thesis deals with the terrorism and war, their meaning in the globalised world and with the possibility of ethical justification of violence. Theoretical part delineates terrorism, its terminology and political and social environment. It describes kinds and methods of terrorism, its history and some of the terrorist organizations with their goals. The thesis also compares terrorism and war in the parts where they intersect. In the next chapters it presents original ethical theories which would be supported by the moral assessment of violent enforcing of interests. There is explained the term of just war, its basic principles and obligatory attributes. Practical part characterize three chosen actual conflicts: the Al- Qaeda attacks on the United States from 11th September, 2001, Chechnya war for its autonomy and current factual occupation of Iraq by allied forces. Legitimate setting in the sense of ius ad bellum, the right to defend by the use of violence, was not mostly deconstructed. In the area of ius in bello, the right in the war, the hypothesis was not verified and the particular violent action did not fulfill some of the basic principles of just war.

O objetivo desta dissertação é expor as características centrais da teoria do filósofo norte-americano Ronald Dworkin sobre a natureza dos direitos fundamentais ou morais. A referida teoria é aqui compreendida como uma defesa da noção de direitos fundamentais, tal como aparece no sistema constitucional norte-americano, contra os ataques do utilitarismo e do juspositivismo. A concepção dworkiniana dos direitos fundamentais como razões de justiça (ou princípios) que operam como trunfos contra a utilidade geral é contrastada com duas teses adversárias: a concepção utilitarista dos direitos morais de John Stuart Mill e a tese juspositivista das fontes sociais. A famosa querela entre Ronald Dworkin e os juspositivistas é analisada em um enfoque normativo, como uma disputa sobre o conceito de autoridade política: Dworkin compreende os direitos fundamentais como a fonte última da autoridade jurídica, enquanto os positivistas sustentam que uma das funções da autoridade jurídica é precisamente estabelecer quais são os direitos das pessoas. / The purpose of this research is to expound the main characteristics of Ronald Dworkins theory of fundamental (or moral) rights. Dworkins theory is herein considered as a defense of the idea of fundamental rights, as it appears in the United States Constitutional System, against the attacks advanced by the doctrines of utilitarianism and legal positivism. Dworkins conception of fundamental rights as reasons of justice (or principles) that function as trumps against the general utility is contrasted with two defiant theories: John Stuart Mills utilitarian conception of moral rights and the positivist social sources thesis. The well-known debate between Ronald Dworkin and the legal positivists is approached as a normative dispute concerning the concept of political authority: Dworkin regards fundamental rights as the ultimate source of legal authority, whereas legal positivists argue that one of laws main functions is precisely to settle peoples rights.

Cette thèse se propose d’étudier comment, à travers sa singulière écriture, John Neal, prenant son contemporain James Fenimore Cooper pour anti-modèle, ambitionne de réformer la littérature américaine, afin de satisfaire au besoin naissant d’indépendance et de renouveau national. Dans une certaine tradition américaine, la frontière est moins une limite territoriale qu’un seuil dynamique, un locus americanus, lieu de tous les possibles. Et c’est bien en ce sens que le romancier du Maine, homme des transgressions, homme de l’entre-deux, écrit «à la frontière» : entre littérature et engagement, entre la scène et la chaire, le masculin et le féminin, l’Indien et le Blanc, sa prose hésite, souvent. Il conviendra en somme d’analyser au plus près cette fabrique alternative de littérarité qu’est l’écriture nealienne, dans l’incertitude des commencements, lorsque l’expression du «génie national» prétend s’instaurer en critère de jugement et faire table rase des modèles d’importation. / This thesis explores how, through his singular writing style, John Neal, using fellow-writer James Fenimore Cooper as an anti-model, sets out to pioneer a thorough reformation of the so-called American literature, in an attempt to satisfy the ever-increasing need for independence and national renewal. In a certain American tradition, the frontier is less a territorial boundary than a « dynamic threshold », a locus americanus where wishful thinking comes true. Thus it is that this transgressive Maine author, a man of the neutral ground, or, rather, of the middle ground, writes «at the frontier»: between literature and committed literature, between the stage and the pulpit, the masculine and the feminine, or the Indian and the white man, his prose often wavers. Hence, our focus will be on the alternative literary vision for « the great Republic of Letters », encapsulated within Neal’s own writing, shaped as it was by the uncertainties of a nation in the making. Those were the days when «national genius» had an edge on European models. Those were John Neal’s days.

Crime and Punishment in the Eyes of Cesare Beccaria An Analysis of an Enlightenment Penal Law Reform The Ph.D. dissertation is centred around a relatively concise, but extremely influential book: Cesare Beccaria's treatise On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene). This work, first published in 1764, sums up in a clear, yet intellectually penetrating way all the main Enlightenment principles of a complex penal law reform. In its time, the book was not only of great philosophical importance and it not only changed the way western societies perceived crime and punishment, but it also served as a concrete guideline for various penal law reformers. It is therefore by no means an overstatement to say that it caused a true paradigm shift in both legal and moral philosophy. The main aim of the thesis is to give a legal-philosophical account of Beccaria's thoughts on crime and punishment, to examine their historical as well as moral background and show the actual impact they had on the legislation of many different, mainly European states. The first chapters of the dissertation are focused on Beccaria's life, his intellectual background and his formative influences (particularly the French, English and Scottish Enlightenment, the social contract theory, utilitarianism, Montesquieu's thoughts on penal...

Crime and Punishment in the Eyes of Cesare Beccaria An Analysis of an Enlightenment Penal Law Reform The Ph.D. dissertation is centred around a relatively concise, but extremely influential book: Cesare Beccaria's treatise On Crimes and Punishments (Dei delitti e delle pene). This work, first published in 1764, sums up in a clear, yet intellectually penetrating way all the main Enlightenment principles of a complex penal law reform. In its time, the book was not only of great philosophical importance and it not only changed the way western societies perceived crime and punishment, but it also served as a concrete guideline for various penal law reformers. It is therefore by no means an overstatement to say that it caused a true paradigm shift in both legal and moral philosophy. The main aim of the thesis is to give a legal-philosophical account of Beccaria's thoughts on crime and punishment, to examine their historical as well as moral background and show the actual impact they had on the legislation of many different, mainly European states. The first chapters of the dissertation are focused on Beccaria's life, his intellectual background and his formative influences (particularly the French, English and Scottish Enlightenment, the social contract theory, utilitarianism, Montesquieu's thoughts on penal...

The master thesis focuses on caring facilities and service, specifically the Charity care service of the regional charity of Klatovy. The Master thesis points out how necessary and at the same time demanding is the work of caregivers. The Master thesis also includes the characteristics of the clientele with whom Caritas care facility most often cooperates - seniors. It also contains an analysis of ethical dilemmas and problems which arose from semi-structured interviews with respondents,who are employees of specific centers of Caritas care service. The thesis also contains improvement suggestions and coments of the ethical dilemmas and problems which are made using 4 ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, ethic of care and situational ethic.

The plots of Billy Budd and The Bonfire of the Vanities are organized entirely around a lawsuit. In The Pickwick Papers the trial is only a part, though an important one, of a series of related adventures in which the main characters of the novel participate. In the three novels there is a trial in which the accused is found guilty, although he is actually innocent. In The Posthumous Papers of the Club Pickwick, the author’s main purpose is to present the operation of the legal system, in which the modus operandi of unscrupulous lawyers, who rely only on cheating and deceiving methods, is atthe beginning of and determines the outcome of the lawsuit. In Billy Budd, an innocent is sentenced to death in order to preserve a supposed higher interest: the common good. In The Bonfire of the Vanities, political factors, personal interests, resentments and other worldly elements determine the outcome of the trial. In the three cases, the watchmaking mechanism that a lawsuit appears to be is completely overcome by factors outside it. / Las tramas de Billy Budd y La hoguera de las vanidades están organizadas íntegramente alrededor de un juicio. En Los papeles póstumos del Club Pickwick, el proceso es una parte importante de la obra, pero también existen aventuras relacionadas en las que participan los diversos personajes. En los tres juicios se juzga a un inocente. En Los papeles póstumos del Club Pickwick, el autor busca presentar el funcionamiento real del sistema legal, en el cual el modus operandi de abogados inescrupulosos, quienes emplean únicamente métodos tramposos y fraudulentos, determina el origen y el resultado del proceso. En Billy Budd, un inocente es condenado a muerte para preservar un supuesto interés mayor: el bien común. En La hoguera de las vanidades, factores políticos, intereses personales, resentimientos y otros elementos de carácter mundano determinan el resultado del proceso. En los tres casos, el mecanismo de relojería que parece ser el proceso es totalmente sobrepasado por factores externos al mismo.

The dissertation concerns F. A. Hayek’s (1899–1992) critique of legislation. The purpose of the investigation is to clarify and assess that critique. I argue that there is in Hayek’s work a critique of legislation that is distinct from his well-known critique of social planning. Further that the main claim of this critique is what I refer to as Hayek’s legislation tenet, namely that legislation that aims to achieve specific aggregate results in complex orders of society will decrease the welfare level.           The legislation tenet gains support; (i) from the welfare claim – according to which there is a positive correlation between the utilization of knowledge and the welfare level in society; (ii) from the dispersal of knowledge thesis – according to which the total knowledge of society is dispersed and not available to any one agency; and (iii) from the cultural evolution thesis – according to which evolutionary rules are more favorable to the utilization of knowledge in social cooperation than are legislative rules. More specifically, I argue that these form two lines of argument in support of the legislation tenet. One line of argument is based on the conjunction of the welfare claim and the dispersal of knowledge thesis. I argue that this line of argument is true. The other line of argument is based on the conjunction of the welfare claim and the cultural evolution thesis. I argue that this line of argument is false, mainly because the empirical work of political scientist Elinor Ostrom refutes it. Because the two lines of argument support the legislation tenet independently of each other, I argue that Hayek’s critique of legislation is true. In this dissertation, I further develop a legislative policy tool as based on the welfare claim and Hayek’s conception of coercion. I also consider Hayek’s idea that rules and law are instrumental in forging rational individual action and rational social orders, and turn to review this idea in light of the work of experimental economist Vernon Smith and economic historian Avner Greif. I find that Smith and Greif support this idea of Hayek’s, and I conjecture that it contributes to our understanding of Adam Smith’s notion of the invisible hand: It is rules – not an invisible hand – that prompt subjects to align individual and aggregate rationality in social interaction. Finally, I argue that Hayek’s critique is essentially utilitarian, as it is concerned with the negative welfare consequences of certain forms of legislation. And although it may appear that the dispersal of knowledge thesis will undermine the possibility of carrying out the utilitarian calculus, due to the lack of knowledge of the consequences of one’s actions – and therefore undermine the legislation tenet itself – I argue that the distinction between utilitarianism conceived as a method of deliberation and utilitarianism conceived as a criterion of correctness may be used to save Hayek’s critique from this objection.