Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Australian legal system'

Bibliography: leaves 462-479. "... to provide a basis for understanding countertrade practices. In particular, however, it aims to provide assistance to trading parties to identify the problems associated with various forms of countertrade and to give them guidance in drafting countertrade contracts in the light of Australian law.".

Through the use of focus groups and interviews, this research aims to increase understanding of the ways in which the public in Adelaide, South Australia draw on well documented rape myths and the influence of this process on their understandings of consent to sexual intercourse. This research explores how individual attitudes and opinions about rape are shaped through social interaction, including comparing the attitudes of men and women. Equal numbers of men and women were drawn from one geographical location by snowball sampling and vignettes were used to facilitate discussion in focus groups. Findings showed that rape myths remain influential amongst the public and are often used to attribute responsibility to women in acquaintance rape scenarios. However, analysis of the public’s engagement with rape myths revealed a complex process. People did not simply adhere to or challenge rape myths but rather these myths were engaged with in different ways at different times and in different circumstances. Findings also highlighted the complexity of the notion of consent and revealed contradictions in the ways in which consent was understood. Moreover, in many cases despite being willing to label an incident as rape, participants were still reluctant to say that they would find the man guilty of the crime of rape. Overall, this study suggests that the public struggle with issues concerning how rape is defined and that this has widespread implications both for rape victims and for the Australian legal system. Findings also suggest that radical attitude change is required before any real improvement will be seen in rape conviction rates.

This study was undertaken with a view to examining Aboriginal customary law in Western Australia and the ways in which the legislation was framed to accommodate the traditions of the indigenous people. that rather than However, from the outset, it was noted trying to adapt aspects of Aboriginal customary law, the legislators and jurists drew up legislation which sought to deny Aborigines access to their traditional ways and to make them amenable to British law. This thesis looks at the entire period of white settlement from 1829 until the present day. It covers most of the important legislation proclaimed in Western Australia during this period as well as some of the more significant court cases which affected Aboriginal people. Central to the thesis is the notion of sovereignty. From the beginning of settlement, Aboriginal people were removed from their land by force or by means of legislation and consequently became dispossessed, not only in terms of their livelihood but also in terms of their traditional lifestyle. This thesis begins with the argument as to whether the British government had the right to claim sovereignty over the land. It concludes with the Mabo decision which found that in fact many Aboriginal people in Australia still have a right of native title to the land. In the interim, however, Aboriginal people suffered severe deprivations at the hands of the settlers and legislators. Many were treated harshly and were denied basic human rights. Yet, throughout the whole period, some managed to maintain aspects of their traditional lifestyle so that today, although there have been adaptations which have altered the form of traditional Aboriginal law, it still remains an important part of their lifestyle in many parts of the State. Legislation drawn up over the past twenty years has helped to ensure that Aboriginal people have the right to decide their own future and this has enabled them to look to the future with hope that soon they might not be considered as ‘other' by white Australians but as equals who have a distinct culture and identity.

This thesis investigated the effects of disruptive technological change on the Australian legal system. It employed a case study of automated vehicles to examine how the Australian legal system adapts to disruptive technology. It considered several areas of Australian law and agents of institutional change that intersect with automated vehicles to understand how the legal system responds to technological disruption.

An underlying issue which inheres in any taxation framework relates to the manner in which it operates and the actual distribution of its imposts or appropriations. In this respect, a tax system needs to confront two fundamental (and interrelated) questions – first, precisely how the tax or impost should be imposed and, secondly, who should bear the legal obligation or onus of payment. These issues can be conceptualised not only from a purely legal or positivist perspective, in terms of identifying who will incur the obligation to pay tax, but also in terms of a more economic and instrumental standpoint as to which entity or individual should effectively be paying the tax. These alternatives may not result in the same conclusions, particularly for the taxation of business forms. To provide one example, if the business form has separate legal entity status from its members, should the business form, as a legal person, be subject to tax separately from its members? From a legal standpoint the response to this question is that such a business form should bear the impost. However, from an economical perspective it may be preferable that the business income and/or losses are directly allocated to its members. Indeed, tax transparency (aggregate approach) has been argued as an economically superior model, although it is not without its critics...

Australia's legal system also known as ‘Common law system' is based on the model which was inherited by those countries whose development was influenced by British Colonialism in particular the commonwealth countries and the U.S.A. When you are citing the document, use the following link http://essuir.sumdu.edu.ua/handle/123456789/33765

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Faculty of Law, University of Sydney, 2006.
Title from title screen (viewed 13th February, 2009) Submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the Faculty of Law, University of Sydney. Degree awarded 2006. Includes bibliographical references. Also available in print form.

Thesis (LLM)--Macquarie University. Division of Law.
Bibliography: leaves 192-208.
Introduction -- The perceived problems and the new reforms -- The framework for children's matters in Australia -- Families and functions - regulating the Australian family -- Reorganising the gender hierarchy -- Men's movements, misconceptions and misidentifying the real issues -- Problems with "shared parenting": an ideal or a (rebuttable) presumption? -- Mediation not litigation -- Conclusion -- Bibliography.
In this thesis, I critically appraise the latest reforms of the Australian family law system and assess the underlying philosophy of these measures. I specifically analyse the introduction of shared parenting and mandatory family dispute resolution. My starting point is that legislative changes alone cannot be used as a means of social change. Legal models cannot function correctly if they reflect an ideal rather than social reality, and in light of the current reforms, the Australian family law system risks such a fate. The system, which presumes that parents share parental responsibility upon separation (and therefore during the intact family), does not represent social truth. It appears to make an assumption that shared parenting is the societal practice, but I believe the law is really being used to impose such an ideal. If the reforms are to be successful, I argue that substantial social and economic structural change is required, in order to break down the dichotomy between men's and women's roles, which continue to define the male role as economic and public and the female responsibility as care-giving and private. This is particularly important if the Government is genuine about its aim to make parenting gender neutral in practice and not just in theory.
The thesis demonstrates that the reform measures are a response to the perceived rather than real problems identified in the family law system, and that they are largely issues raised under the influence of fathers' rights groups. The response of the Government to remedy the system is therefore flawed as it is based on misconceived notions about the family law system. It incorrectly identifies judicial discretion as a fundamental cause of the problems and tries to replace it with a more rules-based approach to determining children's matters. I suggest that the real problems can be found in the continuance of deeply entrenched customs and gendered role constructions, and the remedies lie in their overhaul. The social culture that makes the mother the primary caregiver and allocates to the father diminished parental responsibility from the time the child is born needs to be transformed. A suitable legal response to the current impasse would be to begin by educating the public about the way the system works and provide counselling to families on how to structure their united life well before they reach the breakdown point. Assisting families while they are still functional, as opposed to when they are dysfunctional, would arguably make a large difference in how the family law system is understood. Moreover, it would be able to facilitate ongoing communication for separating couples and, most importantly, thereby uphold the best interests of the child.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
208 leaves

This thesis has three objectives. Its primary objective is to examine, and critically evaluate, the theoretical accounts offered by Hans Kelsen and Joseph Raz to explain the temporal continuity and discontinuity of legal systems. In particular, it evaluates the explanatory power of those accounts by combining an abstract analysis of the accounts in principle and an evaluation based on systematically applying them to one concrete, historically circumstanced instance: the legal systems of British derivation in Australia between 1788 and 2001. The thesis thus tests each account’s factual fit: how adequately it corresponds to, accords with, and persuasively makes sense of, the facts – including complex social facts, attitudes and normative standards – for which it purports to offer an account. Second, the thesis aims to demonstrate, more generally, the utility of applying theoretical accounts to a particular historical instance to complement abstract analysis. Third, the thesis aims to advance the understanding of the evolution of Australian legal systems between 1788 and 2001. These three objectives are achieved through the critical exposition and reconstruction of the accounts, their development and enrichment where refinement is appropriate, their application to the specific context of Australia and their evaluation, individually and in comparison.

This was a phenomenological study undertaken to understand women's experience of the workers' compensation system. Eleven women were interviewed. They ranged in age from twenty-five to sixty-five years and represented diverse socio-economic and educational backgrounds. All women were from a non-indigenous background. The initial question to women was "Can you tell me what it is like to be involved in the workers' compensation system?" The narratives were analysed and interpreted using Hycner's (1985) phenomenological guidelines. Five core themes were found: negative versus positive/neutral experiences, the workplaces response and role in the process, women's experiences of payouts and tribunals, reasons why women may not claim workers' compensation, and the impact of the process on each women and their family(s). Acker's theory of 'gendered institutions' was used to understand why "many apparently gender-neutral processes are sites of gender production" (Acker, 1992b, p. 249). The experiences of the eleven women suggested that the workers' compensation system in Queensland is gendered; 'The women indicated that the workers compensation process was a disincentive to making a claim. WorkCover was viewed as siding with the employer, bureaucratic in nature and lacking values associated with empathy, sympathy and caring. Recommendations for improvements to the workers' compensation included: establish legal obligations and enforcement of occupational health and safety responsibilities to injured or ill workers; adoption of occupational health and safety values by employers; change the attitudes of employers (recognising women as breadwinners and workers are not disposable); a single case manager to advocate for injured or ill workers; recognition of mental and emotional consequences of an injury or illness provision of rehabilitation that recognises mental and emotional factors as well as the importance of family participation; greater involvement of employers and employees in the rehabilitation process; and finally, improved service delivery which involves consistency, ethics, clarity, (regarding the WorkCover process for injured workers and employers), accountability and involvement of all parties. The knowledge embedded in the interviews, expressed through core stories and themes, was essential to making women's voices visible and providing an insight into service delivery based on women's experiences and needs.

The principal research question addressed in this thesis is how the effectiveness of an environmental legal system can best be evaluated. A legal system is effective if it is achieving or likely to achieve its objectives. For an environmental legal system this means achieving sustainable development. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the pressure-state-response ("PSR") method of State of the Environment ("SoE") Reporting provides the best available framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system. A subsidiary research question addressed in this thesis is whether the environmental legal system protecting the Great Barrier Reef ("GBR") in north-eastern Australia is likely to achieve sustainable development of it. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is likely to achieve sustainable development of the GBR. The principal method used to address these research questions and test the hypotheses is a case study of the effectiveness of the laws protecting the GBR. Particular emphasis is given in the case study to climate change both because it is now recognised as the major threat to the GBR and is a topic of significant international and national interest. This thesis is intended to contribute, in particular, to the current public and policy debate on responding effectively to climate change by using the GBR as a yardstick against which to measure "dangerous climate change" and, conversely, acceptable climate change. There are five major findings of the research. First, most of the legal writing regarding environmental legal systems is descriptive, explanatory and interpretative rather than evaluative. Second, most legal writers who attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of part or the whole of an environmental legal system implicitly use the PSR method and refer to pressures, conditions, and responses but do not acknowledge this conceptual framework. Third, the best available conceptual and analytical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system is the PSR method. It is the simplest, most systematic, comprehensive and meaningful framework with the greatest predictive power for evaluating the effectiveness of the total social and legal response to human-induced environmental degradation currently available. Fourth, current practice in SoE reporting, at least in relation to the GBR, is largely descriptive and rarely evaluates the effectiveness of the response. The fifth major finding of this research is that, while there are many effective parts of the response to pressures on the GBR, the current environmental legal system is not likely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing very serious damage to the GBR. Based on what we know at this point in time, particularly the technology that is currently available and current greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change appear likely to swamp the many good aspects of the legal system protecting the GBR. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in 2005 were approximately 379 parts per million ("ppm") and rising by 2 ppm per year. Including the effect of other greenhouse gases such as methane, the total concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases was around 455 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents ("CO2-eq") in 2005, although the cooling effect of aerosols and landuse changes reduced the net effect to around 375 ppm CO2-eq. Limiting the total increase in mean global temperature to approximately 1°C requires stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols around 350 ppm CO2-eq. Increasing the net effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols to 450-550 ppm CO2-eq is expected to result in a 2-3°C rise in mean surface temperatures. There are currently no international or national legal constraints to hold greenhouse gas concentrations beneath these levels and they appear likely to be exceeded. These increases in mean global temperatures are expected to severely degrade the GBR by 2030-2040. Even the targets being set by the new Australian Government of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 appear insufficient to protect the GBR. If a 60% reduction in emissions can be achieved globally by 2050 a rise in mean global temperature of around 2.4°C is expected. This indicates the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is not likely to be effective in relation to climate change and, therefore, is failing to reach its objective of sustainable development. Three major recommendations arise from the research. First, legal writers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole or part of an environmental legal system should use and acknowledge the PSR method. Second, SoE reports should include a stand-alone chapter evaluating the effectiveness of the response. Third, the environmental legal system protecting the GBR should take strong and comprehensive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the objective of sustainable development is to be achieved. Such measures should include setting policy targets for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations around 350 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperature to 1°C. Policy targets of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols at 450-550 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperatures to 2-3°C are likely to be too high to avoid severe impacts of coral bleaching to the GBR.

The principal research question addressed in this thesis is how the effectiveness of an environmental legal system can best be evaluated. A legal system is effective if it is achieving or likely to achieve its objectives. For an environmental legal system this means achieving sustainable development. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the pressure-state-response ("PSR") method of State of the Environment ("SoE") Reporting provides the best available framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system. A subsidiary research question addressed in this thesis is whether the environmental legal system protecting the Great Barrier Reef ("GBR") in north-eastern Australia is likely to achieve sustainable development of it. The hypothesis tested in relation to this research question is that the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is likely to achieve sustainable development of the GBR. The principal method used to address these research questions and test the hypotheses is a case study of the effectiveness of the laws protecting the GBR. Particular emphasis is given in the case study to climate change both because it is now recognised as the major threat to the GBR and is a topic of significant international and national interest. This thesis is intended to contribute, in particular, to the current public and policy debate on responding effectively to climate change by using the GBR as a yardstick against which to measure "dangerous climate change" and, conversely, acceptable climate change. There are five major findings of the research. First, most of the legal writing regarding environmental legal systems is descriptive, explanatory and interpretative rather than evaluative. Second, most legal writers who attempt to evaluate the effectiveness of part or the whole of an environmental legal system implicitly use the PSR method and refer to pressures, conditions, and responses but do not acknowledge this conceptual framework. Third, the best available conceptual and analytical framework for evaluating the effectiveness of an environmental legal system is the PSR method. It is the simplest, most systematic, comprehensive and meaningful framework with the greatest predictive power for evaluating the effectiveness of the total social and legal response to human-induced environmental degradation currently available. Fourth, current practice in SoE reporting, at least in relation to the GBR, is largely descriptive and rarely evaluates the effectiveness of the response. The fifth major finding of this research is that, while there are many effective parts of the response to pressures on the GBR, the current environmental legal system is not likely to be effective in preventing climate change from causing very serious damage to the GBR. Based on what we know at this point in time, particularly the technology that is currently available and current greenhouse gas emissions, the impacts of climate change appear likely to swamp the many good aspects of the legal system protecting the GBR. Atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide in 2005 were approximately 379 parts per million ("ppm") and rising by 2 ppm per year. Including the effect of other greenhouse gases such as methane, the total concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases was around 455 ppm carbon dioxide equivalents ("CO2-eq") in 2005, although the cooling effect of aerosols and landuse changes reduced the net effect to around 375 ppm CO2-eq. Limiting the total increase in mean global temperature to approximately 1°C requires stabilization of atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols around 350 ppm CO2-eq. Increasing the net effect of greenhouse gases and aerosols to 450-550 ppm CO2-eq is expected to result in a 2-3°C rise in mean surface temperatures. There are currently no international or national legal constraints to hold greenhouse gas concentrations beneath these levels and they appear likely to be exceeded. These increases in mean global temperatures are expected to severely degrade the GBR by 2030-2040. Even the targets being set by the new Australian Government of reducing Australia's greenhouse gas emissions by 60% by 2050 appear insufficient to protect the GBR. If a 60% reduction in emissions can be achieved globally by 2050 a rise in mean global temperature of around 2.4°C is expected. This indicates the environmental legal system protecting the GBR is not likely to be effective in relation to climate change and, therefore, is failing to reach its objective of sustainable development. Three major recommendations arise from the research. First, legal writers attempting to evaluate the effectiveness of the whole or part of an environmental legal system should use and acknowledge the PSR method. Second, SoE reports should include a stand-alone chapter evaluating the effectiveness of the response. Third, the environmental legal system protecting the GBR should take strong and comprehensive measures to reduce greenhouse gas emissions if the objective of sustainable development is to be achieved. Such measures should include setting policy targets for stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gas and aerosol concentrations around 350 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperature to 1°C. Policy targets of stabilizing atmospheric greenhouse gases and aerosols at 450-550 ppm CO2-eq to limit increases in mean global temperatures to 2-3°C are likely to be too high to avoid severe impacts of coral bleaching to the GBR.

Although the importance of fathers' post divorce contact with their children has been linked with a better outcome for the children and is valued by society, studies in the United States and Australia have suggested that up to 30 percent of fathers do not maintain regular contact with their children post divorce. To date, the literature has focused mainly on demographic variables and some personal characteristics of the father. An area, which has been neglected, is the influence of fathers' perception of legal proceedings and rules on their contact with their children post divorce. This study aimed to explore the underlying concepts of satisfaction and examine fathers' perception of satisfaction in relation to their experience with the Family Court of Western Australia. This was done by utilising qualitative research methodology. Twenty·four fathers were interviewed using an interview schedule adapted from Tyler (1988). Results from the present study indicated that fathers' satisfaction was primarily influenced by a favourable outcome in relation to contact with their children. Factors found to result in dissatisfaction included fathers’ feelings that their father role had been eroded, a perceived bias by the family law system in favour of the mother, and a lack of legal assistance and limited availability of legal personnel. In order to clarify a number of issues, a subset often fathers from the original sample were re-interviewed. Further analysis confirmed that fathers' unresolved issues in relation to their separation; strong emotions including anger and distress during the court process; and unrealistic expectations in relation to contact with their children, made dissatisfaction with the legal system, and in particular court outcomes, more likely. This research suggests that early intervention for fathers is needed to allow them to address any unresolved issues surrounding their separation, and the emotions such as anger and grief that often follow separation. Services, which provide legal assistance and direction prior to entering and during legal proceedings, also appear to be necessary.

This thesis compares the consultation conducted by the Law Commission ('LC') and the Australian Law Reform Commission ('ALRC'). Its first goal is to describe the process in detail, which begins with the purposes of consultation. Next, the process of consultation is described with a discussion of each of the techniques employed by the Commissions. Although there is much overlap in how the LC and the ALRC consult, they do approach the exercise differently and these differences are discussed. The description of the Commissions' consultation concludes by examining its impact -- A second goal is to compare the two Commissions' approach to consultation and this comparison is aided by the development of two models: the English Commission's expert model of consultation and the Australian Commission's more inclusive model. Underpinning the comparison between the two Commissions and these different models is the intended target of the consultation exercise. It is argued that the LC's decisions are motivated by the goal of securing expertise, more than is the case at the ALRC. By contrast, the Australian Commission is influenced more than is its English counterpart by a desire to include as many consultees as possible. An important part of this comparative study is to explain why the two Commissions consult differently. The most significant reasons are the history of two Commissions, especially the role of the founding Chairmen, and the types of projects that the Commissions undertake -- A third goal, albeit only a tentative one, is to suggest ways in which the Commissions could improve their consultation. These comments are scattered throughout the thesis, but one theme that emerged was that there seems to be insufficient thought given to a number of important stages in the consultation process.

Bibliography: leaves 462-479.
xx, 479 leaves ; 30 cm.
"... to provide a basis for understanding countertrade practices. In particular, however, it aims to provide assistance to trading parties to identify the problems associated with various forms of countertrade and to give them guidance in drafting countertrade contracts in the light of Australian law.".
Thesis (Ph.D.) -- University of Adelaide, Dept. of Law, 1998?

Bibliography: leaves 462-479.
xx, 479 leaves ; 30 cm.
Title page, contents and abstract only. The complete thesis in print form is available from the University Library.
"... to provide a basis for understanding countertrade practices. In particular, however, it aims to provide assistance to trading parties to identify the problems associated with various forms of countertrade and to give them guidance in drafting countertrade contracts in the light of Australian law.".
Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Adelaide, Dept. of Law, 1998?

The guiding orientation of the present research was whether two conflicting positions, (1) that sentencing in a criminal case is a complex decision-making process, and (2) that sentencing is a judgment based upon few offence and/or offender details, could be reconciled. The competing claims lend support to the opposing viewpoints on sentencing guidelines, and are explicitly or implicitly utilised by each side in the law and order' debate, but each is deficient in current empirical or theoretical investigation. Archival research was undertaken on assault occasioning bodily harm cases from the Queensland District Court. Study 1 (N = 244) investigated the correlations between 27 offence, offender, victim and sentencer characteristics (e.g., use of a weapon in the assault, offender's prior convictions, victim's gender and sentencer's expertise), five theorised preliminary decisions (e.g., whether to impose a tariff versus individualised penalty, to set a utilitarian versus retributive punishment), and five sentencing decisions (e.g., to record or not record a conviction, to impose a lenient or a harsh penalty). Results favoured the conclusion that sentencing is a complex decision-making process. Numerous correlations between the variables were initially indicated, although the effects on the sentencing decisions decreased when the offence seriousness and the offender's prior criminal history were controlled for. Guided by the results from Study 1, five increasingly complex legal and theoretical models were developed. The models were arranged hierarchically, initially including only legal variables and then expanded to incorporate concepts from Schubert's (1965;1974) Attitudinal Model of Supreme Court decision-making, and from Heise's (1988) Affect Control Theory. These were evaluated in Study 2 (N=393) using structural equation modelling. Model comparisons revealed that while the Simple Legal Model, (the first model presented including the harm caused by the offence, the offender's prior criminal history, and prescribed aggravating features of the attack) explained almost half of the variance in the sentencing decision, the model offered a poor fit to the data. While each of the three succeeding models improved the model fit, it was the fifth model, incorporating legal variables, preliminary decisions, attitudes, and particularly the sentencer's evaluation of the `character' of the offender, which best represented the data, without sacrificing parsimony, in addition to accounting for almost two-thirds of the variance in the sentencing decision (65.3%). It was concluded that sentencing is a complex decision-making process, and that the judgment is based upon few offence and/or offender details. Firstly, a relatively small number of offence and offender characteristics accounted for the greater part of the variance in the sentencing decision. Judges however, appeared to organise the information provided in order to make assessments about the offender, in the manner predicted by Affect Control Theory. The overall result therefore, supported the complex decision-making process subscribed to by judges. Limitations of the research and the implications of these results for the main players in the process, the inclusion of psychological theory in the courtroom, and the community's understanding of the system, are discussed.

The thesis deals with the emergence of bank and non-bank entities that provide a range of unique transaction-based payment services broadly called Mobile Financial Services (MFS) to unbanked, underserved and underbanked persons via mobile phones. Models of MFS from Mobile Network Operators (MNOs), banks, combinations of MNOs and banks, and independent Mobile Financial Services Providers are covered. Provision by non-banks of ‘bank-type’ services via mobile phones has been termed ‘transformational banking’ versus the ‘additive banking’ services from banks. All involve the concept of ‘branchless banking’ whereby ‘cash-in/cash out’ services are provided through ‘agents.’ Funds for MFS payments may available through a Stored Value Product (SVP), particularly through a Stored Value Account SVP variant offered by MNOs where value is stored as a redeemable fiat- or mobile ‘airtime’-based Store of Value. The competitive, legal, technical and regulatory nature of non-bank versus bank MFS models is discussed, in particular the impact of banking, payments, money laundering, telecommunications, e-commerce and consumer protection laws. Whether funding mechanisms for SVPs may amount to deposit-taking such that entities could be engaged in the ‘business of banking’ is discussed. The continued use of ‘deposit’ as the traditional trigger for the ‘business of banking’ is investigated, alongside whether transaction and paymentcentric MFS rises to the ‘business of banking.’ An extensive evaluation of ‘money’ based on the Orthodox and Claim School economic theories is undertaken in relation to SVPs used in MFS, their legal associations and import, and whether they may be deemed ‘money’ in law. Consumer protection for MFS and payments generally through current statute, contract, and payment law and common law condictiones are found to be wanting. Possible regulatory arbitrage in relation to MFS in South African law is discussed. The legal and regulatory regimes in the European Union, Kenya and the United States of America are compared with South Africa. The need for a coordinated payments-specific law that has consumer protections, enables proportional risk-based licensing of new non-bank providers of MFS, and allows for a regulator for retail payments is recommended. The use of trust companies and trust accounts is recommended for protection of user funds. | vi
Public, Constitutional and International Law
LLD

The subject of this thesis is the use of Information Technology (IT) to assist in the resolution of cases that appear before the Family Law Court in Australia. IT is used to assist in two processes. The first process is the intelligent gathering and preparation of information for Family Law cases. The second process is the modeling of case-decisions by the Family Law Court. The first process is covered in this thesis and the second process is part of the Andrew Stranieri's doctorate research at La Trobe University. Legal Interaction Charts (LIC) are developed to model procedures a Family Law solicitor carries out when gathering information and preparing a case. Sequenced Event Charts (SEC) are developed to implement LICs on a computer.

Worldwide there are two major systems for prosecuting criminal cases, namely the Mandatory Prosecution System (MPS) and the Discretionary Prosecution System (DPS). Under a MPS, prosecutorial discretion to discontinue criminal matters is limited while in DPS it is considerably broader. In the countries surveyed for comparison (i.e. Australia, France, Germany and the Netherlands) which use a DPS it was found that prosecutorial discretion has become more accepted as a mechanism to rationalize the criminal justice bureaucracy and to achieve justice. Prosecutors need discretion in order to adapt to new situations, maximize their resources and tailor individualized justice. Currently Indonesia uses a very restrictive MPS but the current draft of the Criminal Procedure law does facilitate more prosecutorial discretion. This research answered the question of whether the Indonesian criminal justice system could be enhanced by replacing the MPS with a DPS, like that used in Australia.