Thanks to its type-II dipole nature, we were able to demonstrate the higher reactivity of the SO 2 / C¼O syn-conformer for the uncatalyzed 1,3-dipolar cycloaddition of the 2-oxoethanenitrile oxide 2 derived from bornane-10,2-sultam to the symmetric 4,4'-disubstituted trans-stilbenes 3a -3i. The C(a)-si dipolarophile p y approach along the C¼O bond precludes the use of the steric rules formerly expressed for this pseudo-C 2 -symmetric auxiliary. The observed diastereoselectivity is related to the electronic nature of the dipolarophile and may be predicted on the basis of its s para Hammett constant. The absolute configuration was based on the X-ray structure analysis of cycloadduct (4S,5S)-4b, which exhibits an SO 2 / C¼O anti-conformation. Finally, the results obtained with cis-stilbene suggest a nonsynchronous mechanism.Introduction. -Resulting from dipole interactions, N-acyl-substituted (2R)-bornane-10,2-sultam derivatives adopt essentially, in the solid state, the thermodynamically more stable SO 2 /C¼O anti-periplanar conformation 2 ). More than a decade ago, we suggested that the syn-periplanar conformation could lead to a more reactive species in solution, and thus could eventually participate during the course of the reaction by displacing the anti/syn equilibrium 3 ) [8] [9]. This higher reactivity is believed to result from a better electronic alignment between the C¼O moiety and the N lone pair (lp), favoring delocalization on the sultam moiety through a generalized anomeric stabilization of the N lp by the anti-periplanar S¼O s* MO [2]. Indeed, we found that the DhN pyramidal height is directly correlated with the SÀNÀC¼O dihedral angle and reach local and global minima near ca. 170 and À 108, respectively [7] [8]. For syn-periplanar conformations, where the C¼O is bisecting the O¼S¼O angle, the SÀNÀC¼O torsion angle only varies from ca. À 19 to À 98 and the DhN decreases from 0.133 to 0.066 , respectively [7]. Alternatively, in the sterically less constrained anti-conformation, this parameter decreases from ca. 0.40 to 0.11 , for a dihedral angle comprised between ca. 120 and 1708, respectively [7] [8]. This widely