Exit Rights Research Articles

NO CHILD IS AN ISLAND: CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT AND THE RIGHTS OF CHILDREN

In this essay Olivia Newman critically examines two opposing rights claims: the liberal claim that children have a right to become liberal choosers and the fundamentalist claim that children have a right to not become liberal choosers. These positions reflect differing views regarding the value of critically choosing, rather than simply accepting, a way of life. Given their assumptions regarding preference formation, both of these rights appear untenable in light of recent scholarship in psychology: we can neither select a way of life independent of our social milieu, as liberals often imply, nor can we predict how different experiences will affect our preferences, as fundamentalists assume. Nevertheless, each position points to important concerns. Children have a substantive right of exit from constraining social milieus, as liberals purport, as well as a right to respect in public institutions, as fundamentalists insist. When liberals and fundamentalists assert these more modest rights claims, educators can and should strive to satisfy both.

Creatures of Habit: Emergency Thinking in Alejandro Brugués’ Juan de los Muertos and Junot Díaz’s “Monstro”

Alejandro Brugués’ film Juan de los Muertos [Juan of the Dead] (2011) and Junot Díaz’s short story “Monstro” (2012) reveal compelling arguments for what effective and ethical responses to disaster might look like through depictions of apocalyptic scenarios in Cuba and the island of Hispaniola. In accordance with Elaine Scarry’s conclusions in Thinking in an Emergency (2011), these two works highlight the importance of training and habit, deliberative thinking, the right of exit and commitment to equality of survival in emergency preparation and response. Díaz and Brugués’ contributions to the flourishing subgenre of irreverent apocalyptic fiction offer timely appeals for more humane policies and practices that would serve the international community well in any number of actual crises being faced today in the Caribbean and beyond.

Captured Legislators and Their Twenty Billion Dollar Annual Superannuation Cost Legacy

By December 2010 total superannuation assets had reached $1.3 trillion, covering 94% of all Australians. This substantial growth was not a natural evolution. Rather it can be directly traced to three decades of bipartisan reform strategies based on a claimed public interest ideology. This article investigates the concerns raised by Superannuation Select Committees, consumer and union organisations, independent researchers and actuarial experts that, in contrast to the public interest rhetoric, the regulatory reforms have primarily achieved major private interest gains for powerful lobbyists. The findings of this analysis indicate that the democratic power of Australian governments to set economic policy agendas has been progressively eclipsed by the power of the financial services industry's producer groups. Rather than producing a best practice governance structure, fund members remain trapped in a post-reform cost paradox: no right of exit regardless of the deepening cost burden imposed. In an industry set to control a projected nominal figure of $6.7 trillion in superannuation assets by 2035, these findings suggest that the real change necessary to improve the deepening cost burden faced by fund members within a life-long, mandatory superannuation investment is now beyond any government's reach.

Mandatory Versus Default Rules: How Can Customary International Law Be Improved?

Customary International Law (CIL) is plagued with uncertainties about its sources, its content, its manipulability, and its normative attractiveness. The rise of law-making through multilateral treaties also makes the proper role of CIL increasingly uncertain. This is an opportune time, therefore, to be thinking of ways to revive and improve CIL. In a prior article, we argued that the Mandatory View of CIL, pursuant to which nations are barred from ever withdrawing unilaterally from rules of CIL, is functionally problematic, at least when applied across the board to all of CIL. We also suggested that CIL might be improved by allowing for exit rights similar to those allowed for under treaty regimes, many of which allow nations to withdraw unilaterally, at least after giving advance notice of their intent to do so. In a series of papers in Yale Law Journal’s online edition, a number of scholars - Lea Brilmayer, William Dodge, David Luban, Carlos Vazquez, and Isaias Tesfalidet - take issue with our proposal of such a Default View of CIL. In this essay, we respond to their arguments, while also emphasizing the need for additional consideration of the ways in which CIL might be improved.

Exit Rights and Entrance Paths: Accommodating Cultural Diversity in a Liberal Democracy

The debate over the accommodation of culture in liberal democracies tends to emphasize exit rights. Autonomy is typically taken as a pre-condition for exit, and public schools are often charged with promoting or facilitating it. I argue that diversity liberals have a more justifiable view than that of autonomy liberals on cultural accommodation, but diversity liberalism too should reframe its view of exit rights. Narrow exit rights that protect basic human rights should be maintained and augmented with entrance paths into general society. I further suggest that for exit rights along with entrance paths to provide the morally required conditions for accommodating culture while respecting freedom, policies in this realm should be designed to address adults rather than children. I consider the effect of this dual change of perspective on the accommodation of culture in democratic institutions, including schools.

Venture Capital Exit Rights

We investigate when and how venture capital contracts use exit rights such as drag‐along and tag‐along rights. Utilizing a data set of venture capital contracts from Germany, we find that almost all contracts allocate exit rights to the venture capitalist (VC) rather than to the entrepreneur. In our data set, the vast majority of exit rights deal with the sale of the entire company to a strategic investors rather than with initial public offerings (IPOs). We show that venture capital contracts include exit rights to mitigate potential hold‐up problems of the VC in the case of exit.

A Statutory Buy-Out Right in SMEs - An Important Corporate Governance Mechanism and Minority Protection?

It is well known that conflicts between shareholders are the Achilles heel of small and medium sized companies. The risks and consequences of such conflicts have generally resulted in the adoption of company law mechanisms for dissolution or redemption where those in control have abused their power, for example by oppressing the minority shareholders or by gaining private pecuniary benefits (opportunistic behaviour). However, many conflicts between shareholders have nothing to do with oppressing a minority shareholder or gaining private pecuniary benefits. Empirical studies show that very often conflicts between shareholders concern disputes about the strategic development of the company, for example about growth. Traditionally it is assumed that the primary interest of all shareholders is profit maximisation, and that in companies with concentrated ownership the minority shareholder will, as a rule, enjoy the shared benefits of control. But as shown in this contribution, owner-managed small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) do not to live up to this assumption. The business objectives of SMEs are very different from those of listed companies, so that for example growth, high profits and salaries often have a lower priority than control and independence. This means that there is great potential for conflicts between shareholders and for inefficient management of the company. As there is little or no market for shares in SMEs, and especially not for a minority shareholding in an SME where there is an existing conflict between the shareholders, the shareholders are often locked into the company without the possibility of switching their investment and involvement to another, more rewarding company. From a corporate governance perspective it is relevant to discuss whether there is a need to create default rules giving minority shareholders a possibility of putting pressure on the controlling shareholder(s), who is often the manager of the company, to improve performance, for example by giving the shareholders a right to exit at will. The relevance of this discussion is supported by the fact that there has been a paradigm shift in company law thinking, so that greater emphasis is now being put on the idea of making legislation more business-friendly, by focusing on the needs of business in relation to the different types of companies that are the frameworks for business activities, instead of focusing on the prevention of abuse. In this contribution the focus is on resolving conflicts in SMEs. Using a number of empirical studies, on the one hand there is a review of the special risks of conflicts in SMEs, and on the other hand there is a review of the most common kinds of conflicts and their possible consequences. Some examples are given on how companies legislation in different countries regulates conflicts, and it is stated that the existing rules do not give sufficient protection to the parties in connection with different kinds of conflicts. It is argued that there is a need for an expanded exit right, and a proposal is made for the introduction of a default rule in the form of a statutory buy-out right.

Closed-End Private Equity Funds: A Detailed Overview of Fund Business Terms, Part II

The focus of Part II of this article is on governance protectionsand other types of protections that investors may seek. In particular, weconsider a fund sponsor’s ability to waive fiduciary duties and to engage incertain types of conflicts of interest transactions, and the protections thatinvestors may seek to reduce these conflicts of interest. We also considerother types of investor protections, such as, without limitation, exit rights,transfer rights, LP default, bridge financing, advisory boards, investmentrestrictions, excuse and exclusion, coinvestments, AIVs and parallel funds, andreporting. Finally, we consider confidentiality issues, a protection that maybe relevant both to fund sponsors and investors. <b>TOPICS:</b>Private equity, legal/regulatory/public policy, portfolio construction

Venture Capital Exit Rights

We investigate when and how venture capital contracts use exit rights such as drag-along and tag-along rights. Utilizing a data set of venture capital contracts from Germany, we find that almost all contracts allocate exit rights to the venture capitalist (VC) rather than to the entrepreneur. In our data set, the vast majority of exit rights deal with the sale of the entire company to a strategic investors rather than with initial public offerings. We show that venture capital contracts include exit rights to mitigate potential hold-up problems of the VC in the case of exit.

Ethnic Identity and Cultural Catholicism in Pietro di Donato’s &lt;i&gt;Christ in Concrete&lt;/i&gt;

Throughout his novel Christ in Concrete (1939), Pietro di Donato invokes and explores role of Catholicism in his Italian immigrant characters' lives. This novel focuses on Paul, son of Italian immigrants who is forced into manhood when his father is killed in a construction accident. Di Donato frames Paul's story--and narrative generally--with two events deeply symbolic of Christian suffering and redemption: secular versions of Good Friday crucifixion and Easter resurrection. While novel's form is steeped in Christian ritual, its characters also act out Catholic sacramentalism in their daily lives. Some remain devotedly reverent in their religious practice, but others demonstrate their faith through less orthodox means, in expressions that flaunt Church and clergy but arise necessarily in response to harshness of American life and labor. Di Donato's immigrants and newly formed Americans may not attend daily mass (if they attend mass at all) and may curse local priest who remains blind to their suffering, but essence of Catholicism, especially its sacramental ritual, continues to shape their new world experience. Through such ritual, in fact, di Donato's characters act out a cultural identity that combats destabilizing forces that often render them impotent and inarticulate in America. Catholicism emerges not only as cultural articulation, but also as a performance by which they simultaneously retain tradition and create new standards for coping with tragedy and disappointment. As a pragmatic response to material circumstances, Catholicism is not a fixed practice but a process that evolves according to individuals and their experiences. Through characters' relationship with Catholicism, di Donato demonstrates that Italian identity and ethnicity is, in Linda Hutcheon's terms, positional: it changes and develops according to individual histories, individual economic and social situations, and--di Donato asserts--individual religious affiliations. (1) This ethnicity is always transforming, always being created and re-created, and for this reason, Christ in Concrete--a novel considered one of most canonical Italian American texts yet still fairly unknown in multicultural literary America--deserves another look. This essay examines prominence di Donato gives Catholicism in Christ in Concrete as a cultural and performative force, a topic that has received little critical attention. Di Donato's notions of religion, Italian culture and ethnicity, and performance coalesce in complex interworking of sacred and secular that has come to characterize Italian American Catholicism. (2) Identifying correspondences between religion and ethnicity, of course, is not new. Di Donato, however, urges his readers to reconsider how we interpret these correspondences. David A. Hollinger notes that both religious and ethnic identification are deeply rooted and argues that while religious affiliations have histories like ethnic and racial affiliations, the right of exit is more widely accepted in relation to religious than to ethno-racial communities (120-21). The option to drop religious identification, Hollinger suggests, exists even when religious faith is closely tied to family, especially through influence of parents. Yet di Donato makes clear in Christ in Concrete that religious tradition is as impossible to deny as ethno-racial affiliation; Catholicism remains fully integrated in ethno-racial identity. This is not to say that di Donato or his characters unquestionably accept Church authority. But despite disappointment with institutional Church, extricating oneself from Catholicism and fervent devotion to images and ideals of its doctrine is not always possible or even desirable. Catholicism continues to define cultural practice. (3) The result is what Thomas J. Ferraro explains as cultural Catholicism, a shift in religious orientation in which Catholic ways of knowing and habits of being are developed and deployed (intentionally or not) outside official precincts and sanction of Church. …

Venture Capital Exit Rights

Theorists argue that exit rights can mitigate hold-up problems in venture capital. Using a hand-collected data-set of venture capital contracts from Germany we show that exit rights are included more frequently in venture capital contracts when a hold-up problem associated with the venture capitalist's exit decision is likely. Examples include drag-along and tag-along rights. Additionally, we find that almost all exit rights are allocated to the venture capitalist rather than to the entrepreneur. In addition, we show that besides the basic hold-up mechanism there are other mechanisms such as ex-ante bargaining power and the degree of pledgeable income that drive the allocation of exit rights.

Evolution of Decision and Control Rights in Venture Capital Contracts: An Empirical Analysis

We analyze the structure and evolution of the allocation of decision and control rights in venture capital contracts by using a sample of 464 contracts between venture capitalists (VC) and portfolio firms from Germany. We focus on the evolution of control and decisions rights along three time dimensions: the point in time when the contract was signed, the expected duration of the contract and the actual duration of the relationship. We show that contracts are not static but that control rights are adjusted along all three time dimensions. First, we observe a change in the structure but not in the level of the VC’s control rights during the relationship between the VC and the portfolio firm. While venture capitalists return superfluous operational rights to entrepreneurs, they gain (valuable) exit rights during the course of the relationship. Second, we show that the shorter the expected length of the VC’s engagement the more control rights are allocated to the hands of the VC. Finally, we observe that learning took place in the German VC market.

Signs of progress

In this reply to my critics, I begin by clearing away some misunderstandings: I do not reject autonomy and critical self-reflection as possible bases for political judgment and action; I do not dissent from the standard view that some civic education should be mandatory; and I claim neither that each citizen need possess civic virtue nor that there is a one-size-fits-all conception of pro-civic traits within a liberal society. I do endorse the idea of a ‘civic core’ - beliefs, skills and traits of character that ideally every citizen would possess. I then distinguish civic from philosophic education, characterize liberal civic virtues as instrumentally rather than intrinsically valuable, and clarify the relation between these virtues and the idea of limited government that lies at the heart of liberalism. I defend my account of civic education against the claims that it cannot justify citizens’ resistance to unjust or immoral government policies and that it safeguards neither the basic needs nor the meaningful exit rights of children. I conclude by distinguishing between parental influence over children, on the one hand, and brainwashing on the other; the latter warrants external intervention, while the former does not.

IS THERE A LIBERAL RIGHT TO SECEDE FROM A LIBERAL STATE?

This paper explores the question of whether there can be a right to secede from a liberal state by examining the concept of a liberal state and the different forms of liberalism that may be appealed to in order to justify secession. It argues that where the foundations of the state's legitimacy are conceived in terms of a non-derivative right to self-determination, then secession from a liberal state may be a justified form of action for different types of groups including 'illiberal' ones. If, however, a broader definition of political legitimacy is adopted - one that is predicated upon the liberal notions of individual moral autonomy and equality - then the right to independent statehood will generally not include a right to secede from a state that already upholds these principles. Consequently, liberal theorists of secession ar e forced to choose between particularizing a right of independent statehood to groups trapped in illiberal states, or acknowledging that the right to secede includes a right to establish an 'illiberal' state that bestows upon its citizens unequal rights and entitlements other than a right of exit.

Control Over Exit in Venture Capital Relationships

Venture capital contracts contain extensive provisions regulating exit by the venture capitalists. In this Article, Professor Smith employs financial contracting theory in conjunction with original data collected from 367 venture-backed companies to analyze these exit provisions. He concludes that the combination of exit provisions in a typical venture capital relationship serves to lock venture capitalists into the investment during the initial stage. In later stages of the relationship, the venture capitalists acquire increasing control over exit by securing additional seats on the board of directors and by obtaining contractual exit rights. The result is a sophisticated transfer of control from the entrepreneur to the venture capitalists as financial investments increase.

Consenting Adults? Amish Rumspringa and the Quandary of Exit in Liberalism

The Amish are often cited as a paradigm illiberal group, mistrustful of and separated from the modern world. But the Amish practice of rumspringa complicates this common image. At age 16, Amish children are released from church strictures and given a year or more to “run around” in violation of Amish norms. Only after the opportunity to taste life with cars, electricity, alcohol, and rock and roll do Amish-raised teens decide whether to be baptized and enter the church. Consent must be express, never tacit: to paraphrase Locke, an Amish youth is born a member of no church. But is rumspringa a meaningful exit option? Are there plausible ways to make it more meaningful? What does this practice suggest about the debate between “toleration” and “autonomy” liberals, who divide over whether illiberal minority cultures ought to be accepted or somehow reformed? This paper brings a potent case study to the cultural rights debate and argues that both sides fundamentally err. While tolerance liberals tend to vastly underestimate what is required of a meaningful right of exit, autonomy liberals fail to appreciate how much intervention would be necessary to provide such a right. The Amish case suggests that the exit option is deeply flawed as the litmus test for whether and how minorities should be accommodated in a liberal polity.Steven V. Mazie is assistant professor of politics at Bard High School Early College in Manhattan and has taught previously at Bard College, New York University, and the University of Michigan (smazie@bard.edu). His articles have appeared recently in Polity, Field Methods, and The Brandywine Review of Faith and International Affairs. His first book, Israel's Higher Law: Religion and Liberal Democracy in the Jewish State, is forthcoming in early 2006. Earlier versions of this article were delivered at annual meetings of the Western Political Science Association (2003) and the Midwestern Political Science Association (2004) and in a Bard High School Early College Faculty Seminar (2005). The author would like to thank anonymous reviewers, the editors of Perspectives on Politics, and particularly Jennifer Hochschild for their valuable suggestions and criticisms. In addition, he is grateful to Herman Bontrager, Harry Chotiner, Andrey Falko, John Hagan, JoAnne Jensen, Donald Kraybill, Chandran Kukathas, Emile Lester, Carol Levy, Renanit Levy, Marc Olshan, Marek Steedman, Conrad Stern-Ascher, Jennifer Sutton, Lucy Walker, David Wiacek, Ed Wingenbach, Joe Wittmer, and Lee Zook.

Experience, contractual covenants and venture capitalists' responses to unmet expectations

The focus of this paper is on the role of experience in situations where venture capital contracts are drafted and applied. Based on a study of 78 Nordic venture capitalists, it was found that investors with venture capital and business experience include more protective clauses in venture capital contracts than their inexperienced colleagues. However, experienced investors were less likely to exercise these rights. The only deviation from this pattern was prior exposure to conflicts, prompting the use of contractual rights and discouraging compromise and patience in problematic situations with entrepreneurs. It also seems that the content of the contract shapes investors' reactions to unmet expectations: control rights tend to promote ‘relational’ approaches to solving problems emanating in the venture capitalist-entrepreneur relationship, whereas exit rights seem to decrease the venture capitalist's willingness to compromise in the face of unmet expectations caused by the entrepreneur.

The Ethics of Assimilation

Previous articleNext article No AccessThe Ethics of Assimilation*Eamonn CallanEamonn Callan Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUSFull Text Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Ethics Volume 115, Number 3April 2005 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/428460 Views: 286Total views on this site Citations: 10Citations are reported from Crossref © 2005 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved.PDF download Crossref reports the following articles citing this article:Lori Gallegos Conflicts of Home-Making: Strategies of Survival and the Politics of Assimilation, Journal of Intercultural Studies 40, no.22 (Mar 2019): 225–238.https://doi.org/10.1080/07256868.2019.1577229Judith Suissa Multiculturalism and Diversity, (Jun 2018): 833–849.https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-72761-5_60M. Victoria Costa Cosmopolitanism as a Corrective Virtue, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 19, no.44 (Mar 2016): 999–1013.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-016-9711-zLihua Zhao Beyond Cultural Identity: A Reading of Sanjay Nigam’s Transplanted Man, Theory and Practice in Language Studies 4, no.88 (Aug 2014).https://doi.org/10.4304/tpls.4.8.1616-1620Kevin McDonough, Andrée-Anne Cormier Beyond patriotic education: Locating the place of nationalism in the public school curriculum, Education, Citizenship and Social Justice 8, no.22 (May 2013): 135–150.https://doi.org/10.1177/1746197913483657Jon A. Levisohn Rethinking the Education of Cultural Minorities to and from Assimilation: A Perspective from Jewish Education, Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education 7, no.11 (Jan 2013): 54–68.https://doi.org/10.1080/15595692.2012.742053Sigal Ben-Porath Exit Rights and Entrance Paths: Accommodating Cultural Diversity in a Liberal Democracy, Perspectives on Politics 8, no.44 (Nov 2010): 1021–1033.https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592710003166Patti Tamara Lenard What’s Unique About Immigrant Protest?, Ethical Theory and Moral Practice 13, no.33 (Sep 2009): 315–332.https://doi.org/10.1007/s10677-009-9196-0Ilsup Ahn ECONOMY OF “INVISIBLE DEBT” AND ETHICS OF “RADICAL HOSPITALITY”: Toward a Paradigm Change of Hospitality from “Gift” to “Forgiveness”, Journal of Religious Ethics 38, no.22 (Jun 2010): 243–267.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9795.2010.00428.xAnn Ferguson Multiplicitous Subjectivity and the Problem of Assimilation, The Southern Journal of Philosophy 46, no.S1S1 (Mar 2008): 81–90.https://doi.org/10.1111/j.2041-6962.2008.tb00155.x

Property, Privacy, and Personal Data

Modern computing technologies and the Internet have generated the capacity to gather, manipulate, and share massive quantities of data; this capacity, in turn, has spawned a booming trade in personal information. Even as it promises new avenues for the creation of wealth, this controversial new market also raises significant concerns for individual consumers and citizens are often unaware of, or unable to evaluate, the increasingly sophisticated methods devised to collect information about them. This Article develops a model of propertized personal information that responds to these serious concerns about privacy. It begins this task with a description and an analysis of several emerging technologies that illustrate both the promise and peril of the commodification of personal data. This Article also evaluates the arguments for and against a market in personal data, and concludes that while free alienability arguments are insufficient to justify unregulated trade in personal information, concerns about market failure and the public's interest in a protected privacy commons are equally insufficient to justify a ban on the trade. This Article develops the five critical elements of a model for propertized personal information that would help fashion a market that would respect individual and help maintain a democratic order. These five elements are: limitations on an individual's right to alienate personal information; default rules that force disclosure of the terms of trade; a right of exit for participants in the market; the establishment of damages to deter market abuses; and institutions to police the personal information market and punish violations. Finally, this Article returns to examples of technologies already employed in data trade and discusses how this proposed model would apply to them.

Isaiah Berlin, Diversity Liberalism, and Education

There are, according to William Galston (1995), two kinds of liberalism. The first favours individual autonomy and critical rationality, and regards choice-making as definitively human. The second prioritises the toleration of diverse (including illiberal) communities within the wider polity. According to diversity liberals the first, autonomy-promoting, version of liberalism is paradoxically illiberal in proscribing communities that value solidarity and a sense of belonging over individual autonomy. In his most recent book Galston (2002) identifies Isaiah Berlin's moral and political philosophy as foundational for his own diversity liberalism. Berlin, however, is a liberal whose work is permeated by a tension between his recognition of the importance of belonging to a community and his commitment to individual liberty. This article argues that a more balanced treatment of Berlin's philosophy is less helpful to diversity liberalism than Galston claims. This is especially evident when Galston makes his support for the toleration of illiberal communities conditional on an individual right of exit from cultural communities and an education sufficient to make such a right meaningful.