Reflexive and preparatory selection and suppression of salient information in the right and left posterior parietal cortex

Attentional cues can trigger activity in the parietal cortex in anticipation of visual displays, and this activity may, in turn, induce changes in other areas of the visual cortex, hence, implementing attentional selection. In a recent TMS study [Mevorach, C., Humphreys, G. W., & Shalev, L. Opposite biases in salience-based selection for the left and right posterior parietal cortex. Nature Neuroscience, 9, 740-742, 2006b], it was shown that the posterior parietal cortex (PPC) can utilize the relative saliency (a nonspatial property) of a target and a distractor to bias visual selection. Furthermore, selection was lateralized so that the right PPC is engaged when salient information must be selected and the left PPC when the salient information must be ignored. However, it is not clear how the PPC implements these complementary forms of selection. Here we used on-line triple-pulse TMS over the right or left PPC prior to or after the onset of global/local displays. When delivered after the onset of the display, TMS to the right PPC disrupted the selection of the more salient aspect of the hierarchical letter. In contrast, left PPC TMS delivered prior to the onset of the stimulus disrupted responses to the lower saliency stimulus. These findings suggest that selection and suppression of saliency, rather than being "two sides of the same coin," are fundamentally different processes. Selection of saliency seems to operate reflexively, whereas suppression of saliency relies on a preparatory phase that "sets up" the system in order to effectively ignore saliency

Forum shopping in times of crisis: a directors' duties perspective

Some systems have more efficient legal frameworks for insolvency than other regimes, thus directors of troubled companies may seek opportunities abroad. Yet, the legitimacy of forum shopping in close proximity to insolvency is debatable in the context of cross-border insolvency regimes. This paper examines the forum shopping phenomenon from a new perspective, that of directors’ duties in times of financial trouble, specifically in light of emerging international standards in this area. This method allows unearthing the degree to which forum shopping is legitimate. This paper also shows how the directors’ duties regime is better fit to deal with illegitimate forum shopping compared with cross-border insolvency frameworks

Cross-border insolvency of enterprise groups: the choice of law challenge

It is not surprising that the problems of choice of law and international group insolvency have not been sufficiently addressed during the initial development of cross-border insolvency frameworks. The choice of law problem raises difficult questions and affects substantive rights in the context of cross-border insolvency. International group enterprises come about in different legal and operational structures, requiring a sufficiently nuanced regime that could properly accommodate the diverse types of groups. Generally, the regulation of groups is difficult, as it raises a concern of defeating the economic merits of the corporate form. Addressing the combined problem of international groups and choice of law presents significant challenges, and requires careful analysis of economic structures and their implications on both creditors’ expectations regarding their substantive rights and the ability to achieve efficient solutions in insolvency. This Article aims to provide a roadmap of choice of law solutions in international enterprise group cases, and to compare these solutions with the existing cross-border insolvency practice and the cross-border insolvency frameworks

Beyond the search for certainty: addressing the cross-border resolution gap

This Article compares the development of cross-border solutions for resolving and reorganizing commercial entities to those solutions available for financial institutions. This Article argues that the resolution regime for financial institutions needs to move forward from the existing international best practices approach, embodied in the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Key Attributes for Resolution Regimes, to a more formal legal framework for cross-border resolution, similar to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law for Cross-Border Insolvency. In doing so, this Article identifies a gap in the international infrastructure for resolutions. While UNCITRAL promulgated a model law to provide for cross-border insolvencies in 1997, there has been reluctance to take a similar path with regard to the resolution of international financial institutions, even though the stakes are very high. This Article addresses possible reasons for this reluctance, draws lessons from the commercial sphere, and explores the relevance of the UNCITRAL Model Law framework to financial institutions. This Article also analyzes the recent FSB initiative on cross-border resolution and the recently promulgated International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Resolution Stay Protocol that seek to promote certainty in the application of resolution measures across borders. This Article argues that these primarily contract-based initiatives are important contributions to the standardization and improvement of the standards on the treatment of financial contracts in insolvency and resolution. However, the initiatives are still incomplete. Addressing the cross-border gap requires the recognition of goals beyond certainty, in the design of a cross-border framework for financial institutions

Beyond the Search for Certainty: Addressing the Cross-Border Resolution Gap

This Article compares the development of cross-border solutions for resolving and reorganizing commercial entities to those solutions available for financial institutions. This Article argues that the resolution regime for financial institutions needs to move forward from the existing international best practices approach, embodied in the Financial Stability Board (FSB) Key Attributes for Resolution Regimes, to a more formal legal framework for cross-border resolution, similar to the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) Model Law for Cross-Border Insolvency. In doing so, this Article identifies a gap in the international infrastructure for resolutions. While UNCITRAL promulgated a model law to provide for cross-border insolvencies in 1997, there has been reluctance to take a similar path with regard to the resolution of international financial institutions, even though the stakes are very high. This Article addresses possible reasons for this reluctance, draws lessons from the commercial sphere, and explores the relevance of the UNCITRAL Model Law framework to financial institutions. This Article also analyzes the recent FSB initiative on cross-border resolution and the recently promulgated International Swaps and Derivatives Association (ISDA) Resolution Stay Protocol that seek to promote certainty in the application of resolution measures across borders. This Article argues that these primarily contract-based initiatives are important contributions to the standardization and improvement of the standards on the treatment of financial contracts in insolvency and resolution. However, the initiatives are still incomplete. Addressing the cross-border gap requires the recognition of goals beyond certainty, in the design of a cross-border framework for financial institutions

Centralising insolvencies of pan-European corporate groups: a creditor's dream or nightmare

Reflects on whether the EC's centralised approach to corporate insolvency within multinational groups of companies is likely to promote fairness to creditors. Considers the extent to which such a system fulfils creditors' expectations concerning the location of the insolvency process, discourages forum shopping and provides sufficient representation. Details, with reference to cases including the Chancery Division ruling in Re Daisytek-ISA Ltd, how the rights of multinational group creditors may be threatened under Council Regulation 1346/2000 and suggests a potential solution based on identification of a true centre of main interests which would ensure procedural transparency

In search of a Christian-Muslim common path from desacralization to desacralization of nature: Sallie McFague and Seyyed Hossein Nasr on the ecological crisis

This dissertation explores the prospects for Christian-Muslim dialogue regarding the ecological crisis. It compares the views of Sallie McFague and Seyyed Hossein Nasr, leaders in ecological theology and ethics. In 1990, at the Spirit and Nature symposium at Middlebury College, they dialogued unsuccessfully. They could not understand each other across the ideological gulf of McFague's postmodernism and Nasr's traditionalism. However, beneath an outer shell of significant differences, McFague and Nasr share profound common ground. They both understand the ecological crisis as a result of the desacralization of nature in human perception. They believe that Western Christianity's failure to cultivate a spiritual vision of nature set the stage for the development of a thoroughly mechanistic and desacralized worldview in the Renaissance and Enlightenment. They both articulate visions for the resacralization of nature. While unique, these visions both image the world as a body animated by the Spirit of God rather than as a lifeless machine. Furthermore, both authors find insights to support human harmony with the natural world in the mystical wisdom of their traditions. The dissertation models a process of dialogue that unveils McFague's and Nasr's common ground. The first two chapters explore their stories and contexts, modeling the importance of getting to know one's interlocutor. In chapters three and four, their overall ecological theologies are outlined. Only in chapter five, in a dialogical setting in which both authors' ideas are viewed empathetically, are their differences engaged. Chapter six looks at their common ground, tracing how it grows out of their mutual ecological concerns. Finally, chapter seven creatively synthesizes their ideas, especially their proposals for the reintegration of nature into cities and their descriptions of the mystical understanding of the God-world and human-world relationships. The dissertation explores how the mystical consciousness of the unity of the human body with the body of the world needs to be cultivated more widely, and extended into the practice of interfaith dialogue. Christians, Muslims, and all others concerned about the ecological crisis need to become more aware of our unity and see through the illusion that we are separate