Regulation of Network Industries in South Africa

The 1980s saw a global shift to the liberalization and regulation of network industries which were previously public utilities. Underperforming SOEs and unsustainable debt forced South Africa down this road in the late 1980s with the additional challenge of addressing racially skewed access post-apartheid. In telecommunications, this resulted in a managed liberalization process which has seen private entry but continual structural problems due to a failure to undertake wholesale regulation of the incumbents. Despite a policy advocating structural separation of transmission and generation within electricity, reform stalled due to a shift in government thinking and successful lobbying by Eskom. The regulator, NERSA, has also failed to impose operational efficiency and rein in large price increases. Within transport, aviation was liberalized in the early 1990s with effective regulatory oversight of the airports and navigation systems. However, a dependency on cross-subsidies between ports and rail within Transnet has stalled reform elsewhere.

LEGAL REGULATION OF MEASURES OF ADMINISTRATIVE AND PROCEDURAL COERCION

In accordance with the methodology of the system analysis, the legal regulation of measures of administrative and procedural coercion applied in administrative and tort law is considered. An analysis of the current Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses and the draft Code of Ukraine on Administrative Offenses prepared by the Ministry of Justice of Ukraine and other normative acts is carried out. It is noted that measures to ensure proceedings in cases of administrative offenses occupy a special place in the current administrative legislation. Measures of administrative and procedural coercion are procedural actions of administrative jurisdiction bodies and their officials regulated by administrative and procedural norms, which are carried out in the process of law enforcement activity in order to identify the offense, establish the offender, create conditions for clarifying the circumstances of the case, identify, investigate and consolidate evidence, ensuring the execution of the decision in the case. Special features of administrative and procedural measures of coercion are determined. Considering the coercive nature and restrictions imposed by the application of personal, property, organizational rights, there is a need for detailed regulation of the grounds, conditions, procedure of such measures. The structural separation of measures of administrative and procedural coercion in the procedural part of the normative and legal act on administrative offenses is important. It proves the need for legal optimization of measures to ensure proceedings in cases of administrative offenses. With regard to each measure of administrative and procedural coercion to ensure the proceedings in the case of an administrative offense, the rules of the normative and legal act should include the content of the constituent actions, specific goals, grounds and conditions of application.

Vampire squids, ‘the broken internet’ and platform regulation

Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon, Microsoft and Netflix have come under intense criticism for acquiring undue influence on the media, economy, society and democracy. Google and Facebook’s business models, especially, are cast as a form of ‘vampire economics’ responsible for the crisis of journalism and upending the media industries. Many media scholars argue that since the platforms increasingly function like media companies, media policy should be our North Star with respect to what new approaches to internet regulation should look like. This article agrees that a forceful response to the platforms is overdue but criticizes the case against them for too often resting on cherry-picked evidence and an exaggerated sense of their clout, while references to media policy obscure a better approach that draws on four principles from telecoms regulation to guide a new generation of internet regulation: structural separation, line of business restrictions (i.e., firewalls), public obligations and public alternatives.

Resurgence, Part I

The Glass-Steagall Act created a decentralized financial system composed of three separate and independent financial sectors—commercial banking, securities markets, and insurance. The Bank Holding Company Act of 1956 reinforced Glass-Steagall’s policy of structural separation by prohibiting bank holding companies from engaging in any activities that were not “closely related to banking.” Glass-Steagall’s structural barriers prevented the occurrence of systemic financial crises for more than four decades. During that period, federal regulators could deal with problems arising in one financial sector without need to rescue the entire financial system. Despite Glass-Steagall’s success, federal agencies and courts undermined its prudential buffers during the 1980s and 1990s by opening loopholes. Those loopholes allowed banks to convert their loans into asset-backed securities and to offer derivatives that functioned as synthetic substitutes for securities and insurance products. Regulators and courts also allowed money market mutual funds and other nonbanks to issue short-term financial claims that served as deposit substitutes, despite Glass-Steagall’s prohibition against deposit-taking by nonbanks.

Growing pains: Paradoxical tensions and vicious cycles in new venture growth

In this article, we explore how paradoxical tensions related to exploration–exploitation dynamics may shape vicious cycles in high-growth ventures. Based on an inductive, interpretive case study at a telecommunications firm in the United Kingdom, we identify a set of drivers through which vicious cycles may emerge and persist over time. While some drivers are associated with originating the vicious cycle (cycle originators), others are associated with sustaining it (cycle perpetuators). Cycle originators identified in the study include tradeoff cognition, structural separation, and a structural leadership void. Cycle perpetuators include intergroup tensions, ineffectual integration, and a temporal leadership void. We show how the interplay between these drivers in a self-reinforcing process culminates in the escalation of tensions and a political turnover (cycle climax). In the field study, we observe the operation of this pattern over two full cycles. Based on the findings, we develop a framework relating paradoxical tensions to vicious cycles in new venture growth. We conclude by challenging traditional stage-based conceptualizations of new venture growth, and by discussing the implications of our study for research on the linkages between organizational paradox, ambidexterity, and venture growth theory.

Below-Grade Expansion Joints: Challenges and Best Practices

<p>Many of our cities are running out of usable construction space for large buildings. New buildings are reaching new heights and new depths, often extending several stories below-grade. This presents challenges for waterproofing, particularly when building foundations extend below the groundwater table. With climate change and sea-level rise, many geographic areas will increasingly need to consider groundwater.</p><p>Building code requirements, especially in seismic regions, often require engineers to design movement joints or separation joints in below-grade structures. But foundation waterproofing materials are designed to seal around a building, not a void or an excavation. Structural joints are more susceptible to leakage, and higher volumes of leakage, than areas with solid backup.</p><p>We review design considerations for movement joints and present two case studies: a parking structure with structural separation joints between exterior shotcrete shear walls; and a hospital campus relying on below- grade expansion joints between buildings with differing foundation systems. In both, the presence of below- grade joints necessitates more complicated detailing and installation.</p><p>Experience shows us the best practice is to waterproof the building, not the void. Performance is best when the below-grade structural walls provide a solid, continuous substrate. Where movement joints cannot be avoided, we recommend designing structural elements to also meet the needs of the waterproofing system.</p>

Historical paper: The 2004 Proposal for the Structural Separation of Telstra

A comment by Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on 23 October 2017 has re-awakened interest in the possibility that lay open in 2004 for the then Coalition government, of which Mr Turnbull was a member, to have preceded New Zealand in reaping the benefits of structural separation of the incumbent carrier. The paper “Revisiting the Stuctural Separation of Telstra”, published in the Spring 2004 issue of the Telecommunications Journal of Australia and republished below, provided not just the policy rationale for structural separation, but also detailed how it could have been achieved.