Academic literature on the topic 'Unfair advantages'

The social norm theory suggests that leaders who rely on perceived norms (misperceptions) rather than actual norms may produce unfair work advantages. Furthermore, social norms alter ethical leadership behaviors. However, leadership adheres to social norms due to society's implied compliance in the absence of distributive injustice measurements. Therefore, distributive injustice may be a more salient predictor than distributive justice on affective organizational commitment. The aim of this study was to fill gaps in literature on distributive injustice and investigate negative influences on employees’ affective commitment. A distributive injustice scale was designed using employee perceptions of policies that create unfair advantages and meritless rewards. The distributive injustice scale consisted of 14 items. A survey was sent to 481 full-time employees in various industries throughout the U.S. Correlation and regression model output indicated that unfair advantages and meritless rewards had a negative relationship and influence on employees’ affective commitment. Social norm policies that create unfair advantages and meritless rewards can be perceived as a divisionary tacit that negatively impacts affective commitment.

Can fixing the parliamentary term be expected to reduce electoral incumbency advantages? The United Kingdom’s 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act aims to prevent incumbents from scheduling early elections for political benefit. Yet, the view that flexible election timing gives incumbents an unfair advantage remains contested. The literature on opportunistic election calling—including the signalling effects of this strategy and the competence of governments that select it—lends support to both sides in the debate. This article examines how far the divergent arguments apply in the United Kingdom. Using observed outcomes and a potential outcomes approach, we investigate to what effect incumbents have used election timing. Our results suggest that governments can improve their re-election chances when they have discretion to time elections to favourable circumstances instead of facing voters at set intervals when conditions may not be advantageous. Fixed parliamentary terms are likely to reduce that incumbency advantage significantly.

The question of whether transgender athletes should be permitted to compete in accordance with their gender identity is an evolving debate. Most competitive sports have male and female categories. One of the primary challenges with this categorization system, however, is that some transgender athletes (and especially transgender women) may be prevented from competing in accordance with their gender identity. The reason for this restriction is because of the idea that transgender women have an unfair advantage over their cisgender counterparts; this is seen as a problem since sports are typically guided a principle called ‘the skill thesis’, which suggests that sports are supposed to determine who is most skillful by maintaining a fair starting point. In this paper, I argue that if the skill thesis ought to be maintained and there continues to exist no conclusive evidence in support of unfair advantages possessed by trans women, then we may want to re-consider the gender binary in sport. Rather than having male/female categories, it may make more sense to categorize athletes based other sport-specific factors (e.g., height, weight, etc.). This may help to maintain the skill thesis while at the same time removing potentially unfair and discriminatory barriers against transgender athletes.

Three studies conducted among fifth and sixth graders examined how school contexts disrupt the achievement of working-class students by staging unfair comparison with their advantaged middle-class peers. In regular classrooms, differences in performance among students are usually showcased in a way that does not acknowledge the advantage (i.e., higher cultural capital) experienced by middle-class students, whose upbringing affords them more familiarity with the academic culture than their working-class peers have. Results of Study 1 revealed that rendering differences in performance visible in the classroom by having students raise their hands was enough to undermine the achievement of working-class students. In Studies 2 and 3, we manipulated students’ familiarity with an arbitrary standard as a proxy for social class. Our results suggest that classroom settings that make differences in performance visible undermine the achievement of the students who are less familiar with academic culture. In Study 3, we showed that being aware of the advantage in familiarity with a task restores the performance of the students who have less familiarity with the task.

The gist of this article boils down to the impact of unfair tax competition on the current state and further development of a sustainable economy and international economic relations. With the development of the world economy and international economic relations, the world community is faced with such an economic category as unfair tax competition or tax dumping. International tax competition or tax dumping is one of the most negative phenomena associated with the tax policy of states. To stimulate the inflow of investment in a particular country or region, governments of different jurisdictions resort to a special type of tax policy characterized by strong tax cuts. It is obvious that unfair tax competition consists of not only tax dumping, but also other advantages provided by the state. The most obvious of these benefits is high confidentiality for investors. The activities of offshore jurisdictions can not only cause significant damage to the economies of countries that are not able to apply tax dumping, but also provoke serious economic crises. Tax evasion is primarily due to the fact that economic agents prefer to register in offshore countries and pay taxes there. In this regard, offshore countries are quite rightly called the “dependents” of the world economy, since they are the ones who unreasonably use the public goods created by the onshore states. The article examines the impact of unfair tax competition on the current state and further development of the world economy and international economic relations. The policy of offshore countries is analyzed, the reasons, problems and prospects for the development of the international struggle against unfair tax competition are studied. Final positioning is formulated in the paper.

Is a government required or permitted to redistribute the gains and losses that differences in biological endowments generate? In particular, does the fact that individuals possess different biological endowments lead to unfair advantages within a market economy? These are questions on which some people are apt to have strong intuitions and ready arguments. Egalitarians may say yes and argue that as unearned, undeserved advantages and disadvantages, biological endowments are never fair, and that the market simply exacerbates these inequities. Libertarians may say no, holding that the possession of such endowments deprives no one of an entitlement and that any system but a market would deprive agents of the rights to their endowments. Biological endowments may well lead to advantages or disadvantages on their view, but not to unfair ones.I do not have strong intuitions about answers to these questions, in part because I believe that they are questions of great difficulty. To begin, alternative answers rest on substantial assumptions in moral philosophy that seem insufficiently grounded. Moreover, the questions involve several problematical assumptions about the nature of biological endowments. Finally, I find the questions to be academic, in the pejorative sense of this term. For aside from a number of highly debilitating endowments, the overall moral significance of differences between people seems so small, so I interdependent and so hard to measure, that these differences really will 1 not enter into practical redistributive calculations, even if it is theoretically i permissible that they do so.Before turning to a detailed discussion of biological endowments and their moral significance, I sketch my doubts about the fundamental moral theories that dictate either the impermissibility or the obligation to compensate for different biological endowments.

Abstract The applications highlighted the fact that, in crisis situations and war time, there were military negotiations, in which the partners have proven their unfairness and stiffness. The inflexibility and unfairness of the negotiator resides in the fact that he used incorrect tactics⦋1], especially subterfuges, for obtaining advantages. About this negotiating partner we would like to have the following discussion

Humans respond to unfair situations in various ways. Experimental research has revealed that non-human species also respond to unequal situations in the form of inequity aversions when they have the disadvantage. The current study focused on play fights in gorillas to explore for the first time, to our knowledge, if/how non-human species respond to inequities in natural social settings. Hitting causes a naturally occurring inequity among individuals and here it was specifically assessed how the hitters and their partners engaged in play chases that followed the hitting. The results of this work showed that the hitters significantly more often moved first to run away immediately after the encounter than their partners. These findings provide evidence that non-human species respond to inequities by trying to maintain their competitive advantages. We conclude that non-human primates, like humans, may show different responses to inequities and that they may modify them depending on if they have the advantage or the disadvantage.

This article puts forward that there are diverse and sound grounds preventing the universal treaty regulating comprehensively the issues of legal protection from crossborder unfair competition by substantive norms from being worked out in the near future. The development of the universal unification of the conflict-of-law rules on the law applicable to the private relations arising out of unfair competition as a possible alternative is also proposed and substantiated. The authors give some possible reasons for the absence of such a treaty and demonstrate the results that have been achieved so far in this field. The concept of the Draft of the relevant Convention is drawn up. The conclusion is made that the latter needs to be centered on the lex mercatus as a single connecting factor (due to its advantages of predictability, account of the interests of the state where the effected market is situated etc.). Furthermore, the Convention should not provide for party autonomy, should set forth the detailed rules for the legal characterization of the basic terms of the Convention, including the scope of the applicable law as well as the public policy clause and the norms on the overriding mandatory provisions.

The role of relative deprivation and authoritarianism in predicting militancy and the potential for political protest form the backdrop of this study. The influence of conceptions of regime legitimacy as a variable mediating this relationship was investigated by means of a factorial design, employing a white student sample ( N = 135). Conceptions of legitimacy were manipulated by dividing the sample into left- and right-wing subsamples. The left- and right-wing samples were found to demonstrate different conceptions of relative intergroup status between blacks and whites under the regimes which they considered to be their ‘least legitimate political parties’. The left-wing associated illegitimacy with increased status advantages, and were prepared to employ militant strategies under this hypothesized regime in response to these unfair status advantages. Anti-authoritarianism was associated with potential militancy for the whole sample. Results are discussed in terms of the possibility of non-violent social transformation.

The trademark guarantees market transparency and protecting clear communicative channel between innovative product and consumer rather than rewarding creators or creating direct incentives for the inventor like in Intellectual Property and Patent. However, unfair advantages of the trademark are rising to new challenges because of complex average consumer behaviour. Nevertheless extended protections of the trademark can also create obstacles to innovation and market competition. Therefore, to understand the unfair advantages and associated challenges in the trademark in this thesis the research focus is kept on unfair advantages linked with likelihood of confusion and dilution and its possible limitations, and finally problem with existing approach to determine the unfair advantages.

Among the extensive literature on the merits of unfair dismissal laws, comparatively little attention has been paid to the key issue of which remedies, and in what form, can best give effect to those laws. In order to address this gap in the literature, this thesis examines remedies for unfair dismissal through an empirical study of all unfair dismissal decisions handed down in Australia during the 2010-2011 financial year by the Australian federal employment tribunal. This thesis also contains a detailed analysis of the theoretical underpinnings of the current remedy regime for unfair dismissal in Australia – which comprises reinstatement and monetary compensation subject to a statutory cap – to assess the merits of those remedies from the perspective of principle. The results of the analysis reveal some troubling issues of both practice and principle. First, there is a significant divergence between the law as it appears on the statute books in relation to remedies for unfair dismissal (which emphasises reinstatement and making whole the loss suffered by the unfairly dismissed employee) and the law as it actually operates in practice (in which reinstatement is awarded infrequently and the quantum of compensation ordered in lieu of reinstatement is generally small). Second, this problem is particularly acute for self-represented applicants. An economic decision-making model is used to show that, in particular, it is likely that this problem causes self-represented applicants to reject settlement offers which they should rationally accept. Third, neither compensation nor reinstatement is capable of fully realising the purposes that the remedy regime is designed to achieve. In particular, the availability of the remedy of reinstatement against the will of an employer is unsupportable in principle and fails to afford employers a “fair go all round”. The thesis concludes by proposing that the remedy regime for unfair dismissal in Australia be modified to provide only the remedy of compensation, subject to a significantly larger statutory cap than that which presently applies. It is likely that similar modifications would benefit other jurisdictions around the world, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, which have similar statutory unfair dismissal laws to Australia.

S’il est désormais clairement établi que les personnes publiques peuvent, d’une part, prendre en charge des activités sur le marché, d’autre part, candidater à des contrats de la commande publique, les conditions dans lesquelles s’exerce la concurrence des personnes publiques sont souvent l’objet de contestations dans la mesure où on leur fait reproche d’être avantagées par leur statut de droit public. L’objet de cette thèse est de démontrer que les personnes publiques ne sont ni avantagées, ni défavorisées par leur statut mais simplement inadaptées et inadaptables au milieu concurrentiel car le statut de droit public implique structurellement une distorsion concurrentielle et donc une atteinte à l’exigence d’égale concurrence. Cette difficulté pourrait toutefois être surmontée en consolidant les sociétés publiques
It is now established that a public law person can take over activities on the market, and apply for public procurement contracts. But the terms under which these public law persons are present on the competitive market are disputed, as their statute under public law is often criticized as an unfair advantage. This thesis aims to demonstrate that public law persons are neither advantaged nor disadvantaged by their statute, but are simply not suited – and can't be adapted – to the competitive market, as their public law statute structurally implies a competitive distortion and an infringement to the legal requirements for fair competition. That difficulty may however be overcome by consolidating state-owned enterprises

Sacha Guitry fit de sa vie le sujet principal de son œuvre brillante mais assez élégiaque et relativement mélancolique où les personnages suicidaires joués par lui sont assez fréquents. Dans son œuvre, l’osmose est quasiment complète entre le théâtre et la vie. Ses épouses actrices furent les premières à souffrir de cette osmose et de cette instrumentalisation de leur personne et elles se lassèrent presque toutes (sauf Marconi) d’être éternellement considérées comme des êtres élégants mais souvent muets, en dépit du train de vie brillant qu’il leur offrit. Il perdit ainsi périodiquement des partenaires de qualité (il ne remplacera jamais la très brillante Yvonne Printemps) car, l’une après l’autre, elles refusèrent de sacrifier leur vie personnelle au profit du programme théâtral et cinématographique d’un seul homme. Nous tenterons de voir pourquoi Guitry eut avec les acteurs-hommes de meilleures relations qu’avec les femmes érotisées comme ses cinq épouses. C’est pourquoi nous analyserons les rapports idylliques qu’il eut avec trois autres actrices (Carton, Pierry et Fusier–Gir) que le temps avait déjà marquées physiquement. Nous tenterons surtout de redonner vie à ses cinq actrices-épouses en tenant compte des études récentes relatives au "gender" au cinéma ainsi que des star-studies, même si aucune d’entre elles n’est vraiment une star. Nous nous efforcerons d’analyser les conséquences de son comportement souvent machiste et narcissique sur la vie et la carrière de ces femmes pendant 50 ans. Nous analyserons enfin ce qu’il leur apporta et ce qu’elles offrirent à son brillant cinéma par leur présence
Sacha Guitry made his own life the main topic of his apparently cheerful and brilliant plays and films which are often also sometimes elegiac and melancholy. Surprisingly in his works, quite a few characters played by him seem to be fascinated by suicide. There is no real boundary in his works between life and theatre and the actresses who were also his wives suffered from this absence of a frontier-line between those two worlds. They also disliked the way he took unfair advantage of their personality in his plays and almost all of them (except Marconi) eventually got tired of being considered as very smart but speechless creatures, although he offered them a very luxurious way of life. He thus lost quite a number of excellent partners (actually he could never really replace Yvonne Printemps, the exceptional player and singer) because, one after the other, they refused to sacrifice their personal life for the benefit of someone with exacting prospects concerning the theatre and the cinema. We shall therefore try to understand why Guitry usually kept up a better relationship with men-actors than with actresses with obvious sex appeal, like his five wives. We shall then examine the perfect friendship he formed with three elderly actresses whose growing age was becoming quite noticeable. We shall try to "bring back to life" the real personalities of the five actresses who also became his wives by resorting to the recent discoveries about "gender" and star-studies. We shall also try to analyze the influence of his narcissistic and chauvinistic attitude upon the lives and careers of these actresses. We shall eventually try to find out what he brought them by his presence and what they added by theirs to his brilliant cinema

La presente tesi ha come obiettivo analisare il concetto e le specie di squilibrio eccessivo della relazione giuridica di consumo, nonché la possibilitá di correzione di una delle specie di squilibrio eccessivo – l’esercizio abusivo della posizione giuridica dei fornitori – per mezzo della clausola generale di divieto di vantaggio eccessivo, previsto nel Codice di Difesa del Consumatore (Art. 39, V c/c art. 51, IV e §1°). Si tratta, in essenza, di uno studio sulla stessa relazione giuridica di consumo, ragione per la quale si impone, inizialmente, un’analisi con riferimento ai suoi pressuposti fatico-normativi, elementi costitutivi e caratteristica fondamentale (Parte I, Capitolo1) per, soltanto dopo, affrontare il tema degli “squilibri” (strutturale e eccessivo) esistenti in questo tipo di relazione giuridica (Parte I, Capitolo 2), quando si cerca di dimostrare che lo squilibrio eccessivo non si confonda con lo squilibrio strutturale (intrinseco), nella misura in cui questo è realtà costitutiva della stessa relazione giuridica di consumo, essendo, per questo, riconosciuta e tollerabile dal dirito; invece, lo squilibrio eccessivo è realtà che supera i limiti del “giuridicamente tollerabile” – cioè, dello stato di squilibrio strutturale – e, per questo motivo, necessita di essere correta da un mezzo dell’ordine giuridica ( nel caso brasiliano, dal sistema giuridico di protezione e difesa dei consumatori, centralizzato nei valori e norme costituzionali e sistematizzato nel Codice di Difesa del Consumatore – Legge n. 8.078, dell’11 settembre 1990). E per la correzione delle situazioni di squilibrio eccessivo della relazione di consumo generate dall’esercizio abusivo della posizione giuridica dei fornitori il legislatore brasiliano, attento alla necessità di comprensione del diritto privato come un sistema giuridico aperto (Parte II, Capitolo 3) ha costruito il Codice di Difesa del Consumatore come uno microsistema dotato di norme casistiche e di norme aperte (le cosidette “clausole generali”), distacandosi, tra loro, la clausola generale di divieto di vantaggio eccessivo, che si intende essere la “clausola fondamentale di correzione dell’abuso nelle relazioni giuridiche di consumo” (Parte II, Capitolo 4), allo stesso tempo in cui suo ambito di applicazione, fissato dallo stesso leggislatore (CDC, art. 51,§1º), contiene, dovuto alla sua grande generalità, l’ambito delle altre clausole generali di correzione e abuso, così come quelle di funzione sociale ed economica del diritto, buona-fede obiettiva, buone abitudine e lesione enorme, tutelando, infine, la globalità dei legittimi interessi dei consumatori – cioè, i loro interessi di natura patrimoniale e esistenziale – danneggiati dalla attuazione abusiva dei fornitori nel mercato di consumo.
A presente tese tem por objetivo analisar o conceito e as espécies de desequilíbrio excessivo da relação jurídica de consumo, bem como a possibilidade de correção de uma das espécies de desequilíbrio excessivo – o exercício abusivo de posição jurídica dos fornecedores – por meio da cláusula geral de proibição de vantagem excessiva, prevista no Código de Defesa do Consumidor (Art. 39, V c/c art. 51, IV e §1º). Trata-se, em essência, de um estudo sobre a própria relação jurídica de consumo, razão pela qual se impõe, inicialmente, uma análise acerca de seus pressupostos fático-normativos, elementos constitutivos e característica fundamental (Parte I, Capítulo 1) para, só então, enfrentar o tema dos “desequilíbrios” (estrutural e excessivo) existentes nesse tipo de relação jurídica (Parte I, Capítulo 2), quando se busca demonstrar que o desequilíbrio excessivo não se confunde com o desequilíbrio estrutural (intrínseco), na medida em que este é realidade constitutiva da própria relação jurídica de consumo, sendo, por isso mesmo, reconhecida e tolerável pelo direito; ao contrário, o desequilíbrio excessivo é realidade que ultrapassa os limites do “juridicamente tolerável” – isto é, do estado de desequilíbrio estrutural - e, por este motivo, precisa ser corrigida por meio da ordem jurídica (no caso brasileiro, pelo sistema jurídico de proteção e defesa dos consumidores, centralizado nos valores e normas constitucionais e sistematizado no Código de Defesa do Consumidor – Lei n. 8.078, de 11 de setembro de 1990). E para a correção das situações de desequilíbrio excessivo da relação de consumo geradas pelo exercício abusivo da posição jurídica dos fornecedores o legislador brasileiro, atento à necessidade de compreensão do direito privado como um sistema jurídico aberto (Parte II, Capítulo 3) construiu o Código de Defesa do Consumidor como um microsssistema dotado de normas casuísticas e de normas abertas (as chamadas “cláusulas gerais”), destacando-se, quanto a estas, a cláusula geral de probição de vantagem excessiva, que se entende ser a “cláusula fundamental de correção do abuso nas relações jurídicas de consumo” (Parte II, Capítulo 4), na medida em que seu âmbito de aplicação, fixado pelo próprio legislador (CDC, art. 51, §1º), abarca, por sua grande generalidade, o âmbito das demais cláusulas gerais de correção do abuso, como as de função social e econômica do direito, boa-fé objetiva, bons costumes e lesão enorme, tutelando, enfim, a globalidade dos legítimos interesses dos consumidores – isto é, seus interesses de natureza patrimonial e existencial – lesados pela atuação abusiva dos fornecedores no mercado de consumo.
The present thesis aims to analyze the concept and the species of excessive unbalance of the legal consumption relationship, as well as the possibility of correction of one of the species of excessive unbalance – the abusive use of the legal position of the suppliers – by the inclusion of the general clause of prohibition of unfair advantage, set out in the Consumer Defense Code (Art. 39, V c/c art. 51, IV and §1º). It is, essentially, a study on the legal consumption relationship itself, a reason for which it is imposed, initially, an analysis concerning its phaticnormative presumptions, constitutive elements and key characteristic (Part I, Chapter 1) for, only then, face the topic of “imbalances” (structural and excessive) existing in this type of legal relationship (Part I, Chapter 2), when willing to demonstrate that the excessive imbalance is not confounded with the structural imbalance (intrinsic), inasmuch as this is a constitutive reality of the legal consumption relationship itself, being, therefore, acknowledged and bearable by the law; on the contrary, the excessive imbalance is a reality which overcomes the limits of the “legally bearable” – that is, the structural imbalance status - and, for this reason, it has to be corrected by the law (in the Brazilian case, by the legal system of protection and defense of consumers, centered in the values and constitutional norms e ordered in the Consumer Defense Code – Law n. 8.078, from September 11th, 1990). And for the correction of excessive imbalance situations in the consumption relationship caused by the abusive practice of the legal position of the suppliers, the Brazilian legislator, attentive to the need of understanding of the private law as an open legal system (Part II, Chapter 3) created the Consumer Defense Code as a microsystem with cauistic norms and open norms (the so-called “general clauses”), highlighting, concerning these, the general clause of prohibition of unfair advantage, which is understood as the “key clause of abuse correction in the consumption legal relationships” (Part II, Chapter 4), inasmuch as in its scope of application, set by the legislator (CDC, art. 51, §1º), embraces, due to all things considered, the scope of the other general clauses of abuse correction, such as the law social and economic function, bona fide intentions, good manners and serious harm, tutoring, then, the whole of legitimate interests of the consumers – that is, their interests of property and existential nature – harmed by the abusive practice of suppliers in the consumer market.

According to studies conducted by Mobius and Rosenblat (2003) attractive candidates are seen to be more productive in the workplace and would be rewarded for it by receiving higher remuneration than less attractive candidates who are just as qualified. The focus of this study revolves around suggestions that good looks play a major role in the workplace. In addition, Fryer and Kirby (2005) report that obese people earn less than people of average weight with the same set of skills. This study aims to determine the extent to which good looks play a role in recruitment in the workplace and assess the extent to which looks are important to young managers as opposed to older managers when recruiting employees. It also seeks to identify the extent to which looks play a role between male and female managers when recruiting staff and determine if and to what extent good looks give an interviewee an undue advantage. Lastly, it seeks to determine if and to what extent overweight candidates are discriminated against. The sample is segmented using both male and female managers in Durban as key respondents of the questionnaire. The research aims to determine if good looks play an important role in Durban, not only in recruitment in the workplace, but also in the workplace as a whole. Interesting conclusions were drawn. • 71% of the sample population agreed that good looks are based on one’s physical appearance. • 71% agreed that good looking managers have confidence in themselves. • 63% of respondents agree that managers are more tolerant of good looking people. The response overall proved to be that good looking people certainly do have anunfair advantage in the workplace.
Thesis (MBA)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Westville, 2010.

The thesis investigates the concept of trademark dilution under international and regional trademark law, and under the laws of selected jurisdictions; namely, the United States of America, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Republic of South Africa. The investigation includes measures undertaken to prohibit the internet-based dilution of famous marks through the registration of confusingly similar domain names. It is noted that dilution is imprecisely formulated under international trademark treaty law. In fact, the term "dilution" does not appear in international trademark treaties. To fill the gap of international trademark treaties, various policy initiatives, or `soft law' have been developed, which to some extent clarify both the concept of dilution, the type of mark protected from dilution, and the scope of such protection. The problem is that the policy initiatives are non-binding on States, so that different States have adopted different common law and statutory approaches to the protection of marks against dilution. This is demonstrated, for example, by the fact that the European Union and its Member States provide protection from dilution to "marks with a reputation", while the United States of America provides such protection only to "famous" marks, and the Republic of South Africa protects "marks which are well-known in the Republic" from dilution. The thesis analyses the protection granted in these jurisdictions, to determine the similarities and differences of approach, and to make appropriate law reform proposals to achieve uniformity of protection. In the final analysis, it is concluded that the burden of enforcing dilution provisions rest on the judiciary. This being so, the judiciary is urged to engage in a balancing exercise in deciding dilution cases. The courts should recognize that dilution provisions are powerful tools at the disposal of owners of trademarks with advertising value. At the same time, the courts should be steadfast in ensuring that protection from dilution does not stultify freedom of trade, or create absolute monopolies or a form of copyright in a trademark.
Jurisprudence
LL.D.

The way the US Bankruptcy Code treats executory contracts is broadly reflective of three major themes that characterize US insolvency policy generally, including in its evolution over time. First, the Code vests the estate administrator with wide-ranging power to reject and minimize the burden of unfavourable contracts, select and enjoy the advantages of favourable contracts, and even assign the advantages of favourable contracts to third parties for the benefit of the estate. This approach prevails in both liquidation and reorganization cases. In reorganization cases, the appearance usually is that the debtor is allowed to take ‘unfair’ advantage of contract counterparties, since the debtor itself, as debtor-in-possession (‘DIP’), seems to be reaping the benefits while externalizing the burdens onto individual contract counterparties. While the Code refers to the ‘trustee’ as the entity empowered to administer contracts in insolvency, the Code makes it clear that the references to ‘trustee’ are largely confined to liquidation cases, and the DIP exercises the trustee’s powers in reorganization cases.

Due to the limitations of currently available artificial spinal discs stemming from anatomical unfit and unnatural motion, patient-specific elastomeric artificial spinal discs are conceived as a promising solution to improve clinical results. Multimaterial Additive Manufacturing (AM) has the potential to facilitate the production of an elastomeric composite artificial disc with complex personalized geometry and controlled material distribution. Motivated by the potential combined advantages of personalized artificial spinal discs and multi-material AM, a biomimetic multi-material elastomeric artificial disc design with several matrix sections and a crisscross fiber network is proposed in this study. To determine the optimized material distribution of each component for natural motion restoration, a computational method is proposed. The method consists of automatic generation of a patient-specific disc Finite Element (FE) model followed by material property optimization. Biologically inspired heuristics are incorporated into the optimization process to reduce the number of design variables in order to facilitate convergence. The general applicability of the method is verified by designing both lumbar and cervical artificial discs with varying geometries, natural rotational motion ranges, and rotational stiffness requirements. The results show that the proposed method is capable of producing a patient-specific artificial spinal disc design with customized geometry and optimized material distribution to achieve natural spinal rotational motions. Future work focuses on extending the method to also include implant strength and shock absorption behavior into the optimization as well as identifying a suitable AM process for manufacturing.