Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Corporation law Australia'

ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the legal and theoretical basis of continuous disclosure regulation in Australia as it applies to listed companies. An empirical study is undertaken to further investigate the operation of the legislation. As part of the Enhanced Disclosure regime, the continuous disclosure provision was effective from 5 September 1994 as s1001A of the Corporations Law, now the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). This statutory provision is replaced by s674, inserted by Schedule 2 to the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Cth), and effective from 11 March 2002. The provision reinforces Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listing rule 3.1. The rule requires a listed disclosing entity to notify ASX immediately of information that would be expected to have a �material effect� on the share price of the company. However, the disclosure requirement is weakened by a number of specific exemptions or �carve-outs� to listing rule 3.1. If a reasonable person would not expect the information to be disclosed, and if the confidentiality of the information is maintained, then disclosure is not mandatory in special circumstances. This study analyses 427 query notices, issued by ASX to listed companies from July 1995 to April 1996. The queries request information concerning unexplained movements in a company�s share price or a failure to comply with the listing rules. An analysis of the companies� replies to these notices provides a profile of the type of company that is likely to be queried. The study also attempts to evaluate the extent to which these companies have relied on the �carve-outs� as an exemption to the regulation.

ABSTRACT This thesis investigates the legal and theoretical basis of continuous disclosure regulation in Australia as it applies to listed companies. An empirical study is undertaken to further investigate the operation of the legislation. As part of the Enhanced Disclosure regime, the continuous disclosure provision was effective from 5 September 1994 as s1001A of the Corporations Law, now the Corporations Act 2001 (Cth). This statutory provision is replaced by s674, inserted by Schedule 2 to the Financial Services Reform Act 2001 (Cth), and effective from 11 March 2002. The provision reinforces Australian Stock Exchange (ASX) listing rule 3.1. The rule requires a listed disclosing entity to notify ASX immediately of information that would be expected to have a �material effect� on the share price of the company. However, the disclosure requirement is weakened by a number of specific exemptions or �carve-outs� to listing rule 3.1. If a reasonable person would not expect the information to be disclosed, and if the confidentiality of the information is maintained, then disclosure is not mandatory in special circumstances. This study analyses 427 query notices, issued by ASX to listed companies from July 1995 to April 1996. The queries request information concerning unexplained movements in a company�s share price or a failure to comply with the listing rules. An analysis of the companies� replies to these notices provides a profile of the type of company that is likely to be queried. The study also attempts to evaluate the extent to which these companies have relied on the �carve-outs� as an exemption to the regulation.

This study has examined the form and content of 100 Investigating Accountants' Reports (IARs) contained in prospectuses of companies. Hypotheses were developed to test the variables that may affect investigating accountants in: (1) stating the level of assurance clearly and (2) presenting historical proforma financial statements. This study has also examined: (1) how investigating accountants stated the nature of their engagement; (2) reporting procedures of IARs; and (3) investigating accountants' opinion on financial forecasts. This study hopes to provide some insight for regulators and accounting bodies to determine if new regulations are required for IARs in order for investors to obtain the information "reasonably required" by them in making investment decisions.

"October 2008"
Thesis (PhD)--Macquarie University, Division of Society, Culture, Media and Philosophy, Dept. of Sociology 2009.
Bibliography: leaves 273-293.
Introduction -- Patterns of corporate activity as patterns of corporate dominance: legal, organisational, and economic features of corporations -- Representations of corporate dominance in insidious injuries -- The legal basis of corporate dominance: History of the corporation -- Legal individualism and corporate personhood -- Theories of the corporation -- The legal regulation of corporations - corporate liability laws -- Conclusion.
Corporations are no longer simply a type of business structure; they are dominant social institutions. As institutions, corporations are archetypes of contemporary complex social organisation and should, therefore, be a central concern for sociology. Yet with few notable exceptions, sociologists have failed to address their increasingly dominant position in contemporary societies. In this thesis I argue the importance of a renewed sociological interest in corporations. This must acknowledge, but go beyond, the political-economic outcomes of corporations to address the profound consequences of the legal foundations of the corporate form. Corporations are created and regulated by legal doctrine; it is only with a legal mandate that corporations are able to act as employers, suppliers and investors. On this basis, I claim that any understanding of corporate dominance and its effects must commence with an appreciation of the laws that enable the corporation to exist and operate. -- While contributing significantly to wealth creation, corporate dominance also increases the potential for harm to occur to individuals and communities who fall within a corporation's scope. The contemporary proliferation of industrial illnesses is a prime example of this and is examined through a case study of the operations of an Australian asbestos corporation, James Hardie. This case study is timely and unique in its specification of the link between corporate activity and law in contemporary society. -- I argue that corporate activity such as that in the case study is enhanced and legitimated by the legal description of the corporation that assigns to it the capacities of a human individual through corporate legal personhood. Corporate personhood is examined as an example of the legal individualism endorsed in liberal common law countries. By exploring accounts of corporate structure, decision-making and work processes, I explain how the individualised description of the corporation is at odds with its collective realities; the largest and most successful corporations are collectives of human and monetary resources. -- In light of this, I question the extent to which the effective regulation of corporations can be achieved within existing legal frameworks. Building upon research into workplace health and safety in the United Kingdom, the regulation of workplace deaths in Australia is examined to demonstrate the various approaches to regulating corporations and to identify their shortcomings. This is a striking example of the problems law faces in regulating corporations by virtue of its individualistic design. -- The thesis concludes with an affirmation that sociology needs to grapple with issues of corporate activity and that an understanding of the legal basis of the corporation is the foundation of such studies.
Mode of access: World Wide Web.
295 leaves

This dissertation considers the reforms made to the liability rules in Australia�s prospectus laws during the 1990s. It traces the rewrite of the fundraising provisions at the end of the 1980s as part of the new Corporations Law through to the rewrite of those provisions at the end of the 1990s as part of the CLERP Act initiative. As the law in this area is not particularly well served by detailed judicial or academic analysis in Australia, the dissertation seeks to define the scope of the Australian liability regime by reference to case law analysis, a review of relevant theoretical considerations and comparative analysis with other key jurisdictions. The thesis of the dissertation is that many of the reforms were, particularly initially, misconceived in key respects because of a failure to apply appropriate theoretical underpinnings and to take account of the lessons that could have been learned from a comparative analysis with other key jurisdictions.

Micro-economic reform is a primary objective of modern Australian socio-economic policy. The key outcome targetted by this reform is increased efficiency, measured by a range of factors, including cost reduction, increased savings, and a more facilitative environment for business activity. These benefits are sought by the proponents of reform as part of a push to increase national prosperity, but concerns that social equity is undermined by it are expressed by opponents of that reform. The debate between efficiency and equity is raging in current Australian tax policy, a key site for micro-economic reform. As Government Budget restructuring occurs in Australia, demographic change (eg, the ageing population) undermines the ability of public funded welfare to provide retirement benefits. Responsibility for self-funded retirement is an important contributor to increasing private savings. Investment in growth assets such as corporate stock is increasing in Australia, however concerns about volatility of asset values and yield stimulate the importance of investment risk management techniques. Financial contract innovation utilising financial derivatives is a dominant mechanism for that risk management. Synthetic equity products which are characterised by capital protection and enhanced yield are popular and efficient equity risk management vehicles, and are observed globally, particularly in the North American market. Financial contract innovation, risk management using financial derivatives, and synthetic equity products suffer from an adverse tax regulatory response in Australia, which deprives Australian investors from access to important savings vehicles. The negative Australian tax response stems from anachronistic legislation and jurisprudence, which emphasises tax outcomes based on legal form. The pinnacle of this approach is the tax law insistence on characterisation of financial contracts as either debt or equity, despite some important financial similarities between these two asset types. Since derivatives produce transactions with novel legal forms this approach is unresponsive to innovation. The negative tax result also stems from a perception that the new products are tax arbitrage vehicles, offering tax benefits properly available to investment in stocks, which is thought to be inappropriate when the new products resemble debt positions (particularly when they are capital protected and yield enhanced). The negative tax response reflects administrative concerns about taxpayer equity and revenue leakage. This approach seeks to impose tax linearity by proxy: rather than utilising systemic reform to align the tax treatment of debt and equity, the current strategy simply denies the equity tax benefits to a variety of innovative financial contracts. It deprives Australians of efficiency enhancing savings products, which because of an adverse tax result are unattractive to investors. The weakness of the current approach is illustrated by critical analysis of three key current and proposed tax laws: the ???debt dividend??? rules in sec. 46D Income Tax Assessment Act 1936 (the ???Tax Act???); the 1997 Budget measures (which seek to integrate related stock and derivative positions); and the proposals in the Taxation of Financial Arrangements Issues Paper (which include a market value tax accounting treatment for ???traded equity,??? and propose a denial of the tax benefits for risk managed equity investments). The thesis develops a model for financial analysis of synthetic equity products to verify the efficiency claims made for them. The approach is described as the ???Tax ReValue??? model. The Tax ReValue approach isolates the enhanced investment returns possible for synthetic equity, and the model is tested by application to the leading Australian synthetic equity product, the converting preference share. The conclusions reached are that the converting preference share provides the key benefits of enhanced investment return and lower capital costs to its corporate issuer. This financial efficiency analysis is relied upon to support the assertion that a facilitative tax response to such products is appropriate. The facilitative response can be delivered by a reformulation of the existing tax rules, or by systemic reform. The reformulation of the existing tax rules is articulated by a Rule of Reason, which is proposed in the thesis as the basis for the allocation and retention of the equity tax benefits. To avoid concerns about taxpayer equity and revenue leakage the Rule of Reason proposes a Two Step approach to the allocation of the equity tax benefits to synthetics. The financial analysis is used to quantify non-tax benefits of synthetic equity products, and to predict whether and to what extent the security performs financially like debt or equity. This financial analysis is overlayed by a refined technical legal appraisal of whether the security contains the essential legal ???Badges of Equity.??? The resulting form and substance approach provides a fair and equitable control mechanism for perceived tax arbitrage, whilst facilitating efficient financial contract innovation. The ultimate source of non-linearity in the taxation of investment capital is the differential tax benefits provided to equity and debt. To promote tax linearity the differentiation needs to be removed, and the thesis makes recommendations for systemic reform, particularly concerning the introduction of a system of ???Franked Debt.??? The proposed system of ???Franked Debt??? would align the tax treatment of debt and equity by replacing the corporate interest deduction tax benefit with a lender credit in respect of corporate tax paid. This credit would operate mechanically like the existing shareholder imputation credit. The interface of this domestic tax credit scheme with the taxation of International investment capital, and the problems occasioned by constructive delivery of franking credits to Australian taxpayers via synthetics, are resolved by the design and costings of the new system, which has the potential to be revenue positive.

This thesis examined the role played by enabling legislation in requiring Australian public universities to govern and undertake their core functions in the public good. The research identified statutory mechanisms, including the legal status, legal capacities and governance obligations, which shape and colour the form and substance of universities as institutions of public good. The public good requirements embedded in the enabling legislation equates to the public benefit. The enabling legislation compel Australian public universities, as charitable higher education corporations, to act, through their governing bodies, in the public interest to advance higher education and research for the public benefit.

While the word 'critique' appeared frequently in Australian legal education texts between 1987 and 2003, the meaning and the emphasis accorded critique varied widely. Michel Foucault's ideas about the close relationship between knowledge and power provide a theoretical framework within which this inconsistency of meaning and emphasis can be described, analysed and explained. Rather than monolithic, the discipline of legal education was by 2003 a dynamic nexus of distinct and competing discourses: doctrinalism, vocationalism, corporatism, liberalism, pedagogicalism and radicalism. Each of these six discourses was simultaneously a form of knowledge and an expression of disciplinary power within the law school. As a form of knowledge, each discourse accorded critique a different meaning and a different emphasis as a consequence of a range of historical, social and political contingencies. As an expression of power, each discourse was an attempt to achieve a set of objectives including the universalisation of a particular approach to the teaching of law and the enhancement of the status of a particular role within the law school. Critique, in a variety of forms, was a strategy employed by each discourse in order to achieve these objectives and to dominate and displace competing discourses.

While the word 'critique' appeared frequently in Australian legal education texts between 1987 and 2003, the meaning and the emphasis accorded critique varied widely. Michel Foucault's ideas about the close relationship between knowledge and power provide a theoretical framework within which this inconsistency of meaning and emphasis can be described, analysed and explained. Rather than monolithic, the discipline of legal education was by 2003 a dynamic nexus of distinct and competing discourses: doctrinalism, vocationalism, corporatism, liberalism, pedagogicalism and radicalism. Each of these six discourses was simultaneously a form of knowledge and an expression of disciplinary power within the law school. As a form of knowledge, each discourse accorded critique a different meaning and a different emphasis as a consequence of a range of historical, social and political contingencies. As an expression of power, each discourse was an attempt to achieve a set of objectives including the universalisation of a particular approach to the teaching of law and the enhancement of the status of a particular role within the law school. Critique, in a variety of forms, was a strategy employed by each discourse in order to achieve these objectives and to dominate and displace competing discourses.

Company directors, being human, may be tempted to promote their own interests rather than those of the companies on whose boards they serve. Directors are subject to a number of legal duties. A director has a fiduciary duty to act in good faith and in the best interests of the company. A number of other duties flow from this duty such as the duty to avoid a conflict of interests. The duty of a director not to appropriate a corporate opportunity belonging to the company of which he or she is a director, also flows from the duty to avoid a conflict of interests. The common-law duties of directors which have their origins in English law, have developed over a number of years. Because of the difficulty that directors had in establishing what their duties were, a number of jurisdictions embarked on a process of codifying or partially codifying these duties. South Africa, Australia and England are three countries that have promulgated legislation which has resulted in the codification or partial codification of directors’ duties. The purpose of the codification or partial codification of directors’ duties was firstly to clarify the duties of directors, and secondly to make the duties more accessible to those affected by them – the directors of companies. In South Africa the Companies Act 71 of 2008 has partially codified the duties of directors. Because directors’ duties have only been partially codified there is uncertainty regarding their scope. This dissertation will focus on the possible effect of the 2008 Companies Act on the duty of a director not to take a corporate opportunity falling to the company. In this dissertation I address two issues involving the effect of the 2008 Companies Act on the duty of a director not to appropriate a corporate opportunity belonging to the company. Firstly, I consider whether the partially codified directors’ duties are wide enough to cover issues involving the appropriation of corporate opportunities. Secondly, I consider the appropriate common-law test or tests to be applied in determining whether, in the specific circumstances, an opportunity should be classified as a corporate opportunity. In considering whether the partially codified duties of directors are wide enough to include the corporate-opportunity rule, I compare the approach to corporate opportunities and the corporate-opportunity rule in South Africa, Australia and England.
Mercantile Law
LL.M. (Corporation Law)

This thesis critically examines the statutory unfair prejudice remedy provided for in section 163 of the Companies Act 71 of 2008 (‘the Act’). Section 163 is evaluated against its equivalents in England, Australia and Canada. Section 163 is considered against its predecessors to determine whether problems associated with the formulation and application of its predecessors have now been eradicated. It is argued that although it is important to ensure that company legislation is able to provide protection of an international standard to shareholders to be able to attract capital investment in a competitive market, one has to be cautious of slavishly following legislative trends in foreign jurisdictions. The South African legislature indiscriminately incorporated only parts of the Canadian unfair prejudice remedy in section 163. This approach also resulted, amongst others, in the introduction of foreign concepts. The legislature further failed to take cognisance of the unique historical developments relating to the unfair prejudice remedy in South Africa. This has led to the reintroduction of problems experienced with previous formulations of the statutory unfair prejudice remedy in South Africa and left certain problems relating to the interpretation and application of the statutory unfair prejudice remedy unresolved. Consideration is also given to the interrelationship between section 163 and some of the statutory remedies in the Act. Section 163 is also assessed in the context of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. In conclusion, recommendations for possible legislative amendments are made and an interpretational framework for the interpretation and application of the statutory unfair prejudice remedy in section 163 is provided.
Mercantile Law
LL. D. (Mercantile Law)

The regulation of insider trading - the act of trading in securities or other financial products while in possession of relevant non-public, price-sensitive information - is a controversial and complex area of corporate law. Although there has been a marked increase in the number of individual offenders convicted of insider trading in recent years, there has never been a successful criminal prosecution of a corporation for insider trading in Australia, or even a successful set of civil penalty proceedings. This thesis will focus on corporate criminal liability for insider trading in Australia - a topic of great theoretical and practical significance. Corporations are subject to the prohibition of insider trading under Australian law, yet the absence of any successful prosecution, and the dearth of cases concerning corporate defendants, means the law is untested on many relevant issues, complicated by conflicting views as to the proper application of insider trading laws to corporations. The purpose of this thesis is threefold: (i) to determine the manner in which insider trading laws apply to corporations in Australia; (ii) to critically examine the application of those insider trading laws and identify any associated difficulties or flaws; and (iii) to set out proposals for reform and a new model of corporate criminal liability for insider trading in Australia. This thesis will demonstrate that there are a number of specific problems which can be identified in the application of the elements of the insider trading offence to corporations. In particular, there are many mechanisms, existing under both the general law and statute, which can be used to attribute the elements of the insider trading offence to corporations, although there is a lack of clarity as to their availability and application. These different mechanisms also apply a variety of tests, many of which are conflicting, making it difficult to determine when a corporation will actually be regarded as engaging in insider trading. The Chinese Wall defence for corporations also contains a number of gaps in its operation, creating additional uncertainty. This thesis critically analyses corporate criminal liability for insider trading in Australia. Having regard to the need for legislative certainty and the 'market integrity' rationale underpinning Australia's insider trading laws, this thesis recommends reforms to the existing regulatory regime in order to remedy the identified problems and to better apply the law to corporations. Accordingly, a new model of direct corporate criminal liability for insider trading in Australia is proposed.

Small corporations are the backbone of the Australian economy. Various studies have explored corporate governance as it applies to larger organisations. Few studies, however, have examined how corporate governance relates to small corporations. The “one size fits all model” adopted by most of the corporations’ law frameworks and the “comply or explain” mentality places a significant amount of unnecessary and disproportionate compliance burden on small businesses. Worse still, non-listed small corporations are losers of the “corporate governance reform competition”, given their resource constraints. There is a dearth of evidence on the relationship between governance, regulation and performance of non-listed small corporations. Only in recent years have researchers in the field started to explore the governance issues facing small corporations in North America and Europe. Existing empirical studies have mainly focused on isolated governance mechanisms, while the interaction between different governance mechanisms has been ignored. This project intends to address these gaps by applying systematic review, meta-analysis, Path Analysis (PA) and Structural Equation Modelling (SEM). The systematic review identifies relevant theories on the governance and regulation of small corporations. Grounded in these theories, meta-analyses have been applied to synthesize existing empirical evidence in view to developing a conceptual framework. A structured online questionnaire was employed to collect data, yielding 387 responses. Multiple indicators were adopted to measure five latent constructs such as governance, regulation, financial performance, social performance and sustainable performance. PA estimated the direct and indirect effects of governance mechanism on performance. SEM was introduced to confirm the hypothesized relationships, controlling variables such as firm age, size, and development stage. The results revealed (1) the measurement models for four latent constructs including corporate governance, government regulation, financial performance and CSR; (2) the impact of individual governance mechanisms on performance; (3) governance as a bundle has negative impacts on both financial performance and CSR; (4) regulation has a positive impact on financial performance and CSR. Policy recommendations were developed based on the empirical evidence established from this study.

Outsourcing of Information Technology (IT) is a well-established part of Australian business. Offshore outsourcing of IT support and development is a critical and widespread part of the globalised Australian and other nations’ economies. In Australia, national organisations such as the National Australia Bank (NAB) and Australia’s largest telecommunication company, Telstra, continue to outsource work to outsourcing vendors – that is, obtaining goods and services from outside suppliers. It has long been thought that IT outsourcing is motivated primarily by cost cutting in the IT department but the latest trends suggest that outsourcing is more about improving usage of internal resources and service satisfaction. Authors Lee, J-N (2000) and Loh & Venkatraman (1992) argue that outsourcing IT functions to external service providers is done in order to acquire economic, technological and strategic advantage. In this thesis, it is proposed that the main driver for outsourcing IT has matured from being purely cost driven to one of strategic business practice.

The aim of this dissertation is to carry out the following: • Discuss the concept of residency in South Africa and the evolution to the residence basis of taxation in South Africa. • Examine the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development's (OECD) stance on the concept of 'effective management'. • Examine the laws of the United Kingdom, certain European countries and Australia with regard to the concepts of 'management and control', 'management or control', ' place of effective management' and 'effective management'. • Formulate a definition of the term 'place of effective management' in South Africa using these guidelines obtained from the various countries discussed.
Thesis (LL.M.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2002.

An enforceable undertaking is an administrative sanction available to a number of Australian regulators at both the Federal and State level. It is a promise enforceable in court. In an enforceable undertaking, the alleged offender, known as the promisor, promises the regulator (for the purpose of this thesis, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission (‘ASIC’)) to do or not to do certain actions. Such a sanction is the result of an agreement between the alleged offender and the regulatory agency. An enforceable undertaking is thus a form of settlement. By analysing the 286 enforceable undertakings accepted by ASIC over the last decade (1998-2008), this thesis considers whether an enforceable undertaking is an improved form of settlement and identifies the strengths and weaknesses of this sanction. For the purpose of comparison, the manner in which enforceable undertakings are used by other regulators such as the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is also considered. Some of the criticisms levelled at settlements, such as issues relating to transparency and accountability, are referred to and an assessment is made as to whether such criticisms apply to enforceable undertakings. The study finds that an enforceable undertaking is a flexible sanction that provides the regulator with a creative way to deal directly with certain alleged contraventions of the law. Further, an enforceable undertaking may be deemed to be moderately restorative in nature. Accordingly, this sanction may provide, in certain instances, a better outcome than other remedies that are at the regulator’s disposal. Such a remedy has its own place in the Braithwaite’s enforcement pyramid. An enforceable undertaking is, in addition, more transparent than a settlement. Its terms are unlikely to be perceived as unreasonable either by the promisor or the victims of the alleged offender. Further, while the use of settlements raises issues of accountability, the fact that an enforceable undertaking is subject to judicial review and is enforceable in court provides a certain protection to the promisor. Ultimately, if the terms of an undertaking are unreasonable, it is unlikely for the courts to give such promises any legal effect. Lastly, to ensure compliance of the promisor with the terms of the undertaking, an effective monitoring system has to be in place. However, since ASIC is more reactive than proactive in relation to the monitoring of undertakings, such a monitoring system relies heavily on self-regulation by the promisors. The thesis concludes that the current system of monitoring enforceable undertakings has a number of flaws that should be taken into account by the regulator. In summary, an enforceable undertaking is an enhanced form of settlement, the use of which by regulators should continue and generally replace the use of other forms of settlements.

Insolvency practice, has in recent years undergone many changes with the introduction of the Voluntary Administration scheme under Part 5.3A of the Corporations Law. So significant are these changes that current statistics show that as much as 48 % of all external appointments over "insolvent" companies are by the appointment of a Voluntary Administrator. The scheme fails to allow the largest class of creditor, the unsecured creditor, the right to initiate the appointment of an Administrator over an insolvent company in order to protect their interests. This study aims to identify the rationale behind the exclusion of such a right, the cost/benefit of introducing the right to unsecured creditors and the possible social and economic consequences of including such a right into Part 5.3A of the Corporations Law. It is concluded that whilst the Voluntary Administration scheme continues to operate in the manner that it does, overall returns to creditors will not increase unless unsecured creditors are given the right to initiate the appointment of an Administrator. Extensions to the existing appointment process are suggested and reviewed.

In this study the high density housing sector was studied as a domain for the development of an alternative model of dispute management to that contained in the relevant statutory regime. This formed the basis for a simulation that would empirically test two hundred and fifty-two participants on three levels. These were their preferences, their perceptions of justice and some elements of efficiency. Each of these levels were tested in relation to three processes: mediation followed by arbitration conducted by the same person; mediation followed by arbitration conducted by a different person; and arbitration followed by mediation conducted by the same person. The research was constructed around two content theories: the instrumental model and the relational model. The instrumental model is principally concerned with the distribution of control in intervention processes. Control theory in particular underpinned the preference research. Relational models, including the group-value model, propose that justice decisions lead to conclusions about one’s self-identity and self-esteem and how needs around these are met. The relational models, particularly heuristic fairness theory, were useful in examining the impact of outcomes and other variables on overall perceptions of fairness. Participants preferred a process that they judged gave them more control. In this research mediation followed by arbitration by the same person was preferred. Participants did not rate any of the three processes more just than the others at postmediation and post-arbitration stages of the experiment excepting those participants who received an adverse outcome at the end of the arbitration. These participants appeared to use the information about the adverse outcome as a shortcut, or heuristic, in deciding whether the process in a broader sense was fair. The efficiency of the three simulated processes was examined to provide some data about the way in which they can be evaluated on various criteria and how these could be integrated with justice measures.

Recently, the Saudi Capital Market Authority (CMA) opened the door for foreign investors to invest directly in the stock exchange market (Tadawul) to gain more welfare from their investments. Along with this step, the CMA released a set of Rules for Qualified Foreign Financial Institutions Investments (RQFFII) in Listed Shares 2015 that aimed to attract and protect the shareholders' rights. In this research project, the RQFFII have been examined to discover the level of attraction that these Saudi rules offer to foreign investment. The project also aimed to highlight strengths and weaknesses in the rules with regard to the protection shareholders' rights. This thesis explored the possible influence of foreign investments in the Saudi stock exchange. The research project aimed to increase the CMA and shareholders' awareness and knowledge in regard to these rules which lead to more protection of the local stock exchange.

This study discusses South Africa’s tax incentives for small businesses and identifies shortcomings and areas of concern within the tax incentive regimes. A comparison of small business tax incentives provided by Australia, India, and the United Kingdom is made with South Africa’s small business tax incentives to identify similarities and differences, and new lessons are learned from the approaches of other countries. As a result of the comparison with the tax dispensations available to small businesses in other countries, the study recommends additional tax incentives that could be implemented by South Africa. Only those tax incentives that are available in other countries but not in South Africa that were deemed worthwhile were recommended to be introduced in the Republic. Recommendations were also made based on the gaps identified in South Africa’s small business tax incentives.
Taxation
M. Phil. (Accounting Sciences)