Solvent Debtors Must Pay the Contractual Post-Petition Interest Rate on Unimpaired Claims

(Excerpt) The default rule in bankruptcy law is that when a debtor files for bankruptcy, interest ceases to accrue on their unsecured claims. This general principle is subject to an exception known as the solvent debtor exception. Under this exception, solvent debtors are required to pay post-petition interest on their outstanding claims, even after filing for bankruptcy. Section 726(a)(5) of the Bankruptcy Code states that solvent debtors must pay interest at “the legal rate.” However, the Bankruptcy Code does not define what the legal rate is, and courts have disagreed over whether it applies to both impaired and unimpaired claimants. This article analyzes the post-petition interest rate that solvent debtors must pay to unimpaired claimants. Part I analyzes whether the solvent debtor exception survived the passing of the Bankruptcy Code. Part II analyzes the definition of the legal rate and its potential application to unimpaired claimants

Climate change, gender, youth and nutrition situation analysis - Ghana

Situation analysis of climate change, gender, youth and nutrition in Ghana

Climate change, gender, youth and nutrition situation analysis - Uganda

Situational analyais of climate change, gender, youth and nutrition in Uganda

Climate and social studies services: Experiences from country engagements and lessons learned

A framework, created by a team of researchers at the International Food Policy Research Institute, supports the integrated analysis of climate change, gender, youth and nutrition

Gendered Perspectives on Refugee Determination in Canada

This article discusses refugee determination from an intersectional perspective to unpack the impacts of gender on the refugee determination hearing in Canada. The article highlights the importance of dominant discourses in a legal context, focusing particularly on how discursive constructions of subjectivity affect refugee determination where claimants’ trustworthiness depends not only upon their abilities to describe their past experiences, but also how well their story corresponds with dominant discourses about refugees. It also discusses how these dominant discourses are racialized, gendered, and hetero-normative, and how feminist theories of intersectionality could be of use to deconstruct the ways they affect different groups of refugee claimants. The article concludes by considering the implications of the newly shortened timelines in refugee adjudication.Cet article traite de la détermination du statut de réfugié de façon à évaluer l’impact de l’appartenance sexuelle dans les audiences d’admission au statut de réfugié au Canada. On y souligne l’importance des discours dominants dans le contexte légal ; plus particulièrement, on y examine comment les récits subjectifs affectent l’admission au statut de réfugié lorsque la fiabilité des témoignages des demandeurs repose non seulement sur leur capacité à décrire leurs expériences passées, mais également sur l’adéquation de leurs témoignages avec ces discours dominants sur les réfugiés. On y examine comment ces discours dominants contiennent des éléments de racisme, de sexisme et d’hétéronormativité, et comment les théories féministes d’intersectionnalité pourraient contribuer à déconstruire leur influence sur les divers groupes de demandeurs d’asile. Cet article conclut en considérant l’impact du raccourcissement des délais des processus de demande d’asile au Canada

Climate change, gender, youth and nutrition situation analysis - Ethiopia

Provides a situational analysis for climate change, gender, youth, and nutrition in Ethiopia

Climate change, gender, youth and nutrition situation analysis - Uganda

Situational analyais of climate change, gender, youth and nutrition in Uganda

"It actually made me feel like I didn't even want to stay here": Experiences of "Voluntary Return" in a Sanctuary City

During the near decade of Conservative rule in Canada, from 2006 2015, rancorous anti-refugee and anti-migrant discourse and policy were circulated, which manifested in a large-scale overhaul of the immigration system. Social, economic, and physical exclusions increased as a reassertion of state sovereignty through the reconstitution and solidification of borders, as well as the increased precariousness of migrant bodies. The primary goals of my dissertation research have been to learn why some migrants chose to leave Canada voluntarily and to understand the factors that have forced them to do so. Among the key questions this dissertation attempts to answer are the following: 1) What factors push migrants to make decisions on the spectrum of forced voluntary return? 2) How does gender, as it intersects with other identities and social relations, influence migrants experiences of forced voluntary return? 3) What does the addition of forced voluntary return, a non-binary concept, offer to current research on voluntary and involuntary migration? This research proposes that particular spaces and relationships became laden with feelings of exclusion and criminalization, which for the migrants centred in this dissertation, resulted in a loss of hope for a future in Canada. Participants identified loss of hope as one of the primary factors that pushed them to leave voluntarily, so as to relieve the pain associated with staying. The exclusions were importantly impacted by gender, class, racialization, age and ability, which came together in ways that pushed some into a forced voluntary return. I offer the spectrum of forced voluntary return to capture some of the tensions and messiness within migrant experiences of return that are neither completely voluntary nor forced

Mapping the policy process in Nigeria

How research contributes to the policy process in developing countries in general, and in Nigeria more specifically, is not well understood. Yet such understanding is a critical part of doing effective policy research. This has become especially critical for the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI), which has set up a country office for policy research in Nigeria. A key challenge for IFPRI, and other research organizations in the country, is how to better integrate research results into policy and communicate research results to Nigerian policymakers. To gain some useful insights into how research does, or does not, influence policy in Nigeria, we examined a case involving the process leading up to the adoption in 2006 of Nigeria’s National Fertilizer Policy. Rather than focusing on how research influences policy in general, examining a particular policy allowed us to trace the actual policy process that took place, the actors involved, and the types of links and interactions between them. A diverse group of stakeholders (government, donors, the research community, farmer organizations, and the private sector) undoubtedly debated the content of the fertilizer policy. Thus, its successful formulation and adoption offered a useful opportunity to examine how it came about in spite of competing vested interests (both for and against it) and what role, if any, research-based information played in developing it. The policy covered some highly contentious political issues, most prominently the issue of privatization of the fertilizer sector in place of the large-scale and long-standing subsidy program. How the actors engaged and appeased people with vested interests who would normally oppose the policy, and the degree to which research-based information played a role in policy development, is of interest to IFPRI and others engaged in policy research. To study the policy process that led to the formulation and adoption of the National Fertilizer Policy, we used a network-mapping tool, Net-Map. Drawing on social network approaches, the tool is particularly suitable since it can help highlight the actors and formal and informal interactions involved in the policy process, as well as examine the flows of information from researchers to help determine the pathways of research-based information. In support of the Net-Map method, we also undertook a content analysis of published and grey literature on fertilizer policies in Nigeria in the years prior to the passing of the fertilizer bill. This provided a context for the knowledge-based and policy discussions, who was involved in them, and who funded or drove them.Development strategies, Fertilizer, Net-Map, policy processes, Social network analysis,