The classical understanding of the law of obligations was founded on the idea that a sharp distinction could be drawn between contract and tort. Contractual obligations were believed to be voluntarily assumed, while obligations in tort were thought to be imposed by the courts. Despite decades of criticism, the classical view continues to be repeated in authoritative legal texts. Although the principal flaws in the classical model are widely understood, many judges and scholars still insist that at some fundamental level contract and tort can be distinguished. This paper is the first step in an attempt to understand that insistence and its implications. The goal of the paper is to demonstrate the persistence of the idea that contract can be sharply distinguished from tort and to provide a detailed account of the reasons why that distinction does not stand up to close scrutiny. The paper looks closely at aspects of contract law that are informed by the values and standards attributed to the law of tort. The idea that contractual obligations are voluntarily assumed is undermined by the objective approach to contract formation, the objective approach to contract interpretation and the extent to which default rules shape the parties' primary and secondary (or remedial) obligations. The idea that contracting parties tacitly consent to default rules by their failure to contract around them fails to provide a basis for distinguishing contract from tort. Lack of knowledge of default rules, disproportionate transaction costs and inequalities of bargaining power prevent many contracting parties from routinely choosing contract terms. If, despite those constraints, persons engaging in contractual behaviour can be said to consent to the legal consequences of that behaviour, we can equally say that legal actors engaging in other types of voluntary conduct consent to the obligations arising from that behaviour in the law of tort. The paper also considers aspects of tort law that are informed by considerations traditionally associated with the law of contract; namely, the extent to which obligations in tort can be voluntarily assumed and voluntarily limited or excluded. The paper shows that obligations in contract, like those in tort, are to a significant extent shaped by community standards. Contractual rights and obligations are to some extent shaped by consensus, to some extent imposed by one party on another and to some extent imposed on both parties by law. Similarly, obligations in tort are to some extent shaped by voluntary arrangements between the parties, to some extent shaped by the unilateral actions of one party and to some extent imposed by law.
This article sets out a normative theory to guide decisionmakers in the regulation of contracts between firms. Commercial law for centuries has drawn a distinction between mercantile contracts and others, but modern scholars have not systematically pursued the normative implications of this distinction. We attempt to cure this neglect by setting out the theoretical foundations of a law merchant for our time. Firms contract to maximize expected surplus and the state permits markets to function because markets maximize social welfare. Thus, there is a correspondence of interest between firms and the state, which implies that, when externalities are absent, the state should implement the preferences of firms regarding the rules that regulate their contracting behavior. A contract law for firms would differ in three major respects from current contract law. First, such a law would have far fewer default rules and standards than current contract law contains. The high level of generality on which much contract law is written (e.g., a party must behave "reasonably") creates unacceptable moral hazard for parties subject to it. Thus, firms in theory should, and in practice commonly do, contract out of much of the law most of the time. The primary effect of today's law, that is, is to raise transaction costs without altering substantive behavior. Second, the default theory of interpretation in a contract law for firms would require courts to base interpretations primarily on the written texts of agreements. The risks of incorrect interpretations that such a theory creates, we argue, would be more acceptable to firms than the costs that the courts' current interpretative practices create. Third, the law would contain almost no mandatory rules. To summarize, a modern law merchant would be much smaller than current contract law; would truncate broad judicial searches for parties' true intentions when interpreting their agreements; and would accord parties much more freedom to write efficient contracts than now exists.
The aims of this article are to describe the fundamental connection between State government, counties and municipalities and to expose peculiarities of interaction of State government subjects and Local Self-government institutions. The survey method is grounded on the systemic research and analysis of the Lithuanian legal acts: Law on the Local Self-government, Law on the Governing of the County and Law on the Regional Development. The main conclusions of the article are following: a) the objects, functions and responsibility of Regional institutions and Counties are separated by legal acts, but in fact Regional institutions and Counties are indivisible unit; b) in reality municipalities become subordinate to the State government and restraint from Self-government institutions appreciable by limited liberty of decision making and finance resources, and intensive state inspection of procedures; c) there is not fully realized principle of decentralization. In the future State government system and Local Self-government reforms could take the way of self-governmental regions making and the power, functions and decision making competence of municipalities could be extended.
China's WTO Entry will bring both opportunity and challenge to Chinese finance. To meet the new situation, Chinese finance must find a new way of development: relax the restrictions of financial annex, cancel the system of decentralized management progressively, give energetic support to developing and improving financial medium stups, improve the circulate funds guarantee system of medium and small enterprises, encourage new financial ideas, enhance the profit ability of banks.
This paper starts with reviewing Traditional Location theory and particularly analyzes the changes of location factors under the new background of economic globalization and science information revolution. Then it puts forward global location factors and explains them one by one. The authors think that there are seven main factors in global location theory, including ①transportation, communication and other infrastructure, ②science and technology, information and qualified personnel, ③economic system and the degree of marketability, ④social environment, ⑤environment, ⑥centralization and decentralization, ⑦geographical situation. On top of the introduction, the paper illuminates briefly the connection within the seven factors, and regards them as an entity with interaction and conditionality. Later the paper makes a probe into the effect that global location does on urban development. The meaning of global location is to press us to set up a series of relative criterions, look for the comparative predominance of urban development and make full use of it, so as to promote urban to find best and feasible way to boost its comprehensively competitive ability. The primary criterions include the following aspects. ①Urban status depends on the energy of its trade, finance, information and technology. ②Urban area should aim to advance its status indvantageous node of world urban network. ④The approaches to realize the aim are to improve its system environment, environment, human environment and to establish predominant industry and so on. Based on this, the paper considers that the process of urban development is the one that a city keeps on looking for synthetically location predominance in the global network of cities, so as to increase its integrative competitive ability. Besides, the authors think that the location selection of MNC confirms what the global location does on urban development. Furthermore, the paper makes a case study of Nantong city of Jiangsu province.
South Korea and Taiwan have similar experiences as to political and economic development, i.e., rapid economic growth and democratization. However, the 1997 financial crisis experiences were quite different South Korea was hit hard by the crisis whereas Taiwan was barely touched. Why were the experiences different between South Korea and Taiwan? We argue that economic fundamentals were differential leading up to the crisis. More importantly, the differences in the pace of financial liberalization and the method that South Korea financed its growth particularly in the 1990s were much different than Taiwan's. We also argue that the differential impact of the crisis on the two countries can be attributed to the institutions of their respective political economy, decentralized vs. concentrated industrial structure, and interest group structure that helped in the creation of an autonomous state. Given the dominance of SMEs (small and medium sized enterprises) and the state's control of critical resources along with dispersed and weak interest group structures, economic technocrats in Taiwan were able to employ tough pre and post‐crisis policies to maintain Taiwan's economic viability, whereas South Korea was not able to.
This thesis is written for the Swedish degree Licentiate ofScience, Teknisk Licentiat.It is a university degree, between that of master andthat of doctor.The main focus of the thesis is on the construction ofsecure protocols for comparing the underlying plain-texts inElGamal encryptions. The protocols make use of the malleabilityof the ElGamal encryption scheme. More specifically they usethe multiplicative homomorphic property of ElGamal.We present fully verifiable protocols for both thetwo-party setting and the multi-party setting. These protocolsare built on sub-protocols, which are specially constructed tofit the present setting. We also present full proofs forcompleteness, soundness, and zero-knowledge for all the givenprotocols, in the random oracle model.
We reconsider the optimal central banker contract derived in Walsh (1995). We show that if the government's objective function places weight (value) on the cost of the contract, then the optimal inflation contract does not completely neutralize the inflation bias. Furthermore, the more concerned the government is about the cost of the contract or the less selfish is the central banker, the smaller is the share of the inflation bias eliminated by the contract. Finally, a central banker contract written in terms of output can completely eradicate the inflationary bias, regardless of concerns about contract costs.
R. Layi Fagbenle, M. Tunde Oladiran, Taiwo Oyedemi
Nigeria’s grid electricity supply of 5.881 GW installed capacity in the period 1994–1997 has experienced a sharp decline over the past five years to about 3 GW by 2002, even as electricity demand has grown due to population pressures, industrialization, and urban migration. Indeed the present situation is a near total collapse of the state power utility services, as total prolonged blackouts have been commonplace throughout the country in the past couple of years, and the situation may grow much worse unless significant shift in energy policy and investment takes place urgently. Diversification of energy sources to reduce the overt increasing dependence on fossil fuel generation and a shift towards renewable energy generation, particularly solar photovoltaic electricity, is a highly desirable policy shift. Among the gains would be reduced carbon emission into the environment and reduced transmission and distribution losses due to the possibility of decentralized generation and localized use of solar photovoltaic electricity. This paper examines the use of decentralized and gridconnected solar PV in building cladding as a pragmatic solution to the current power problems of Nigeria. The results of an ongoing investigation of the potential generating capacity of stand-alone and grid-connected solar PV cladding on residential and commercial buildings in Nigeria. An economic analysis of the proposed system is also considered as well as suggestions on financing. The cost of electricity from the proposed solar PV-clad buildings, calculated using an assumed 8% discount rate and a 25-year life expectancy was found to be significantly higher, in the double digits, than the present national tariff. Thus, novel financing schemes required are examined in the paper.
Based on the theory of forward secure digital signature scheme and confirmer signature scheme, a new forward secure and confirmer signature scheme is proposed It is the first time that forward secure and confirmer are combined in a digital signature scheme The idea of zero knowledge proof is used in the confirming process The scheme is proven to be secure under the assumption of the intractability of factoring and discrete logarithm and quadric remain problems Forward security of the scheme means that even if the secret key of current time period is compromised, some security remains: it is not possible to forge the signature relating to the past Secret key is evolved with different period time while the public key is fixed in the life time And the partially trusted player-conformer could verify the signature who can control the distribution of the verification of the signature and prevent the signer from denying the disadvantageous signature
Implementing the African Information Society Initiative (AISI), African Ministers of Planning and Economic Development identified the use of ICTs in central Government and local administration as one of the priority sectors for the entry of Africa into the information era and as a means to support Government’s administration and decentralization process, which is consistent with Vision 2020 in developing electronic information for development in the Gambia.
Responding to a request from the Hon. Secretary of State for Finance and Economic Affairs, of the Republic of The Gambia, The Executive Secretary of United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) sent a mission to the Gambia in November 2002 to carryout a preliminary assessment and discuss modalities for the design of e-Government Strategy for the Gambia with a view to start an e-Government pilot project between the Department of State for Finance and Economic Affairs and the Office of The President for the sharing of Financial and Economic Management data and information. It is envisaged that after the successful implementation of the pilot project, all the relevant institutions and services across the country will be subsequently interconnected electronically.
Globalization represents an economic restructuring that exacerbates women’s impoverishment world wide. It involves a transnationalization of capital, ascendance of finance capital, decentralization of industry, and reorganization of labour (Sachs, 1996, p. 141). The resulting changes, which include the impacts of structural adjustment programs, low commodity prices, declines in public and private employment (including the closure of larger-scale mines owned by corporations or the state), modified patterns of trading and farming, and inflation, have drawn rural workers-particularly womenaway from their more traditional roles in subsistence agriculture, and toward more wagedependent types of employment (ILO, 1999, p. 29). However, as rural women have entered the industries of the cash economy, they have become even more marginalized than when they engaged in subsistence economies (Third World Network, 1998). At the same time, many more women are also becoming household heads upon whom their children are solely dependent. Thus, rural women are more susceptible to poverty unless able to secure paid employment in other industries, such as small-scale mining. In the rural areas of developing countries, small-scale mining is often the best-paying pursuit available to women, especially those providing for their families while remaining near to their children and husbands, and, in certain cases, when working alongside both.
David Sarley, Hamdy Abdallah, R. Venkateswaro Rao, Prince Gyimah · 5 authors
Ghana has a long tradition of innovation and reform in the organization and delivery of its health services. The planned introduction of the National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF) follows earlier efforts to decentralize health service and drug management. The NHIF will replace the cash-and-carry system for financing health services medicines while maintaining local facility autonomy in managing their revolving drug funds (RDF). This autonomy increased local management’s discretion over drug procurement and pricing within clear guidelines. These guidelines state that public facilities should buy first from the public sector and should mark up at a fixed 10 percent margin for Regional Medical Stores (RMS) and for service delivery points (SDPs). The MOH/Ghana Health Services (GHS) has been receiving reports of noncompliance with these guidelines within the public sector. RMS and SDPs have reportedly increased their procurement from the private sector while the considerable variation in drug prices indicate margins in excess of 10 percent. To examine these issues and determine options for a more efficient effective and equitable pharmaceutical pricing policy a joint MOH/GHS and DELIVER team were commissioned to conduct a detailed pricing study. A team of six experts surveyed 67 public and private sector facilities in all ten regions in Ghana visiting facilities at the central regional and local level. The team tracked procurement and sales information for 35 tracer drugs through the public distribution system and attempted to compare international prices and the private distribution system. (excerpt)
El mayor cambio que ha experimentado la sanidad española en las dos últimas décadas es probablemente el de la generalización de la transferencia a las CCAA que integran el Estado. Este hecho puede generar tensiones en el status quo. ¿Es compatible la descentralización sanitaria con un Servicio Nacional de Salud cohesionado? ¿Es la descentralización sanitaria parte del problema o de la solución? La generalización de las transferencias de una manera tan rápida como la experimentada en nuestro país (negociada en poco menos de 6 meses, con acuerdos financieros de mínimos, en ausencia de marcos legales explícitos en los ámbitos de la coordinación y del desarrollo de normativa básica, con un nuevo acuerdo de financiación autonómica general del que no se conocen aunque se intuyen algunas lagunas, etc.) ofrece un presente con interrogantes. Un posible mal uso de las amplias competencias transferidas por parte de las nuevas comunidades en ejercicio de sus poderes es fácilmente utilizable por parte de quienes añoran el centralismo preconstitucional, para levantar todo tipo de temores entre la población de resquebrajamiento de la sanidad pública en tanto pilar fundamental del Estado de bienestar. El trabajo se dirige de modo sucinto a los extremos anteriores. The greatest change experienced by the Spanish health system in the last two decades has probably been the devolution of power to the autonomous communities composing the Spanish state. This may generate tensions in the status quo and poses questions of whether decentralization of the health system is compatible with a cohesive national health system and whether this devolution of power is part of the problem of the health system or part of its solution. Generalized devolution occurring as rapidly as that produced in Spain (negotiated in slightly less than 6 months, with minimal financial agreements, without explicit legal frameworks in the areas of coordination and development of basic norms, and with a new agreement of general financing of the autonomous communities which possibly contains lacunae, etc.) presents an uncertain panorama. The possible misuse of the wide powers recently transferred to the autonomous communities could easily be used by those who would like to see a restoration of pre-democratic centralism to sow fear of the collapse of the health service as the cornerstone of the welfare state among the general public. The present article briefly addresses these questions.
Tertiary education in the U.S. requires large investments that are risky, lumpy, and well-timed. Tertiary education is also heavily subsidized. By making the risk of human capital investment more acceptable, especially to low wealth households, subsidies may increase investment in human capital, lower long-run inequality, and reduce aggregate precautionary savings. However, subsidies also encourage more poorly prepared students to attend and are usually financed via distortionary taxes. In this paper, we find that observed collegiate subsidies improve welfare substantially relative to the fully decentralized (zero subsidy) outcome. We show that subsidies help smooth consumption, lower skill premia, increase interest rates as precautionary savings fall, lower the inequality of both consumption and wealth, increase intergenerational income mobility and raise welfare, even when financed by distortionary taxes.
Penerapan Undang-Undang Nomor 22 Tahun 1999 mengandung pengertian pembangunan mengarah ke desentralisasi yang nyata dengan pemberdayaan daerah dalam pembangunan wilayah daerah masingmasing. Dengan perkataan lain, Daerah Otonom memisahkan antara DPRD dan Pemerintah Daerah dalam melaksanakan tugas masingmasing.
Hal ini menunjukkan bahwa DPRD dalam konteks Undang- Undang Nomor 22 tahun 1999 diberdayakan sedemikian rupa melalui pemberian tugas, hak dan wewenang yang cukup luas sehingga benarbenar dapat melakukan fungsinya serta sungguh-sungguh berperan sebagai penyalur aspirasi masyarakat dalam rangka pembangunan demokrasi. Oleh karena itu sangat menarik dilakukan penelitian terhadap Kinerja Lembaga Legisla tif.
Tesis ini berjudul Kinerja Lembaga Legislatif ( Studi Tentang Kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang ). Tujuan dari penelitian ini adalah untuk mengetahui dan mendeskripsikan Kinerja DPRD serta faktor-faktor yang mempengaruhi Kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang Periode 1999-2004. Data yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah data primer dan sekunder. Data primer diolah dari hasil pengamatan dan wawancara dengan anggota DPRD serta pihak-pihak yang terkait dengan pelaksanaan tugas pokok dan fungsi DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang.
Sedangkan data sekunder diperoleh dari Sekretariat DPRD dan Sekretariat Pemerintah Daerah Kabupaten Deli Serdang. Unit analisis dalam penelitian ini adalah DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang sebagai suatu lembaga organisasi. Adapun variabel dalam penelitian ini adalah Kelembagaan (Organisasi), Sumber Daya Manusia, dan Informasi sebagai variabel independen. Sedangkan yang menjadi variabel dependen adalah Kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang. Metode analisis yang digunakan dalam penelitian ini adalah deskriptif kualitatif.
Hasil penelitian ini menunjukkan bahwa kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang Periode 1999-2004 masih rendah. Hal ini dapat dilihat dari indikator Akuntabilitas, Responsivitas dan Efektifitas. Rendahnya Kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang ini dipengaruhi oleh faktor kelembagaan yaitu sarana dan prasarana, Sumber Daya Manusia yaitu pendidikan dan pengalaman, serta faktor informasi yaitu sumber informasi yang digunakan, keterbukaan menerima dan menyampaikan informasi, serta intensitas menyerap aspirasi masyarakat yang dimiliki oleh DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang. Penelitian ini juga menunjukkan bahwa ternyata faktor anggaran dan pembiayaan yang tinggi tidak berpengaruh terhadap kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang.
Dalam peran serta pemberdayaan DPRD untuk memperbaiki dan meningkatkan kinerja DPRD Kabupaten Deli Serdang dimasa yang akan datang, perlu diadakan pengenalan dan orientasi melalui pelatihan/kursus terhadap pelaksanaan tugas pokok dan fungsi DPRD sebagai lembaga perwakilan masyarakat daerah serta melalui pengembangan kualitas terhadap sistem persyaratan anggota legislatif melalui partai politik
Implementation of Law No 22/1999 means that the development goes to real decentralization by local empowerment in development of each region. In other word, in an autonomous area there is a separation between local legislative and local administration in doing each duties. It indicates that local legislative, in context of Law No 22/1999, is empowered by giving wide tasks, rights and authorities, so it can really do its function and play role as channel of people aspiration in order to develop democracy. Therefore, it is very interesting to study performance of legislative institution.
This thesis has a title of Performance of Legislative Institution (a study on performance of Deli Serdang regency legislative). The objective of this study is to comprehend and to describe performance of the local legislative and factors influencing performance of Deli Serdang regency legislative in the period of 1999 to 2004. The data used in this study was primary and secondary data. The primary data was processed from result of observation and interview with members of local legislative and parties relating to implementation of main duties and functions of local legislative of Deli Serdang regency. Meanwhile, secondary data was obtained from secretariat of local legislative and secretariat of local administration of Deli Serdang regency. Analytical unit in this study was Deli Serdang regency legislative as an organizational institution. Variables in this study were institution (organization), human resource, and information as independent variables. Beside, the dependent variable was performance of Deli Serdang legislative. Analytical method used was descriptive qualitative method.
The result indicates that performance of Deli Serdang legislative in period of 1999 to 2004 is still low. It can be viewed from indicators of accountability, responsivity and effectivity. The low performance of Deli Serdang legislative is influenced by institutional factors – equipment and infrastructure; human resource factors – education and experience; and information factors – information source used, openness of receiving and giving information, and intensity of absorbing people aspiration owned by Deli Serdang legislative. This study also indicates that high budget and financing did not influence performance of Deli Serdang legislative.
In empowering local legislative to improve performance of Deli Serdang legislative for the future, it is necessary to carry out introduction and orientation through training or course on implementation of main duties and functions of local legislative as a representative institution of local people and through increasing quality of requirement of legislative members from political parties
The ESRDF, one of the biggest projects funded by the World Bank in Ethiopia, was established on 13 February 1996. It was designed to provide financial and technical support to poor, mainly rural and women communities and community groups, to construct or rehabilitate and maintain basic economic and social infrastructure and services, as well as environmental conservation actions that they prioritized and in which they are willing to invest. In its technical support ESRDF was envisaged to give greater emphasis on strengthening community capacity in project identification, implementation and maintenance. ESRDF is a semi autonomous office and was organized on a decentralized basis. It has a central office and eleven regional offices, including Addis Ababa. The organizational structure employed at all levels is very slim and the staffing consists of a few qualified technical specialists. ESRDF has been operational for the last six years (1996-2002), and the theme of this paper is to go over its success towards achieving one of its top objectives, i.e. community empowerment, by taking ESRDF-Addis Ababa Regional Office as a case study. The ESRDF – Addis Ababa RO has assisted a total of 191 community-initiated projects technically and financially. They have focused on primary education, primary health care, environmental sanitation and development, capacity building and training and income generation. The paper is thus primarily focusing on the extent to which the office’s intervention brings about the enabling environment for communities to decide what their priorities are, to enable them to form their internal committees and elect representatives accountable to them, to participate actively in planning, implementation, management and maintenance of their projects, and to have considerable women’s participation in the decision-making process of communities’ actions in general and activities directly affecting their lives in particular. In order to give life to the discussion in the paper, facts about sub-projects that are relevant to the discussed topics will be demonstrated and presented. At the end of the paper, concluding remarks and recommendations concerning policy implications of community empowerment to the realization of poverty reduction strategy programs in Addis Ababa will be drawn.
A confirmer signature scheme is proposed. This scheme is designed according to Camennisch-Michels?confirmer signature model. It is the first time that the widely used digital signature algorithm DSA and famous public key cryptosystem RSA are being used in confirmer signature scheme, and a new method of zero-knowledge proof for denying protocol is used. This scheme can be used in fair electronic contract signing schemes.