Digital Commons Network^™

Surprises In The Skies: Resolving The Circuit Split On How Courts Should Determine Whether An "Accident" Is "Unexpected Or Unusual" Under The Montreal Convention, Ashley Tang

Washington Law Review

Article 17 of both the Montreal Convention and its predecessor, the Warsaw Convention, imposes liability onto air carriers for certain injuries and damages from “accidents” incurred by passengers during international air carriage. However, neither Convention defines the term “accident.” While the United States Supreme Court opined that, for the purposes of Article 17, an air carrier’s liability “arises only if a passenger’s injury is caused by an unexpected or unusual event or happening that is external to the passenger,” it did not explain what standards lower courts should employ to discern whether an event is “unexpected or unusual.” In 2004, …

United States Food Law Update: The Fda Food Safety Modernization Act, Obesity And Deceptive Labeling Enforcement, A. Bryan Endres, Nicholas R. Johnson

Journal of Food Law & Policy

The long-awaited enactment of the FDA Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA), the most significant amendment to the Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act in several decades, provides the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) with significantly enhanced jurisdiction to close some of the gaps in the domestic food safety system. The enhanced FDA authority, however, will have little impact on the shared governance system at the federal level that involves multiple agencies, as the Act does not address the U.S. General Accounting Office's (GAO) repeated calls for consolidation of the fragmented federal food safety system. Rather, the Act perpetuates the division …

The Rise Of Transnational Commercial Courts: The Astana International Financial Centre Court, Ilias Bantekas

Pace International Law Review

The proliferation of international commercial courts aims to boost income from legal services and serve as a catalyst for newly found rules of law and thus attract investor confidence. The latter is the underlying purpose for the creation of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and its Court. The Court’s legal framework is set out in the tradition of its competitors in the Gulf and similarly employs an impressive lineup of former senior judges from the United Kingdom. It is a unique experiment because it strives to create a balance between maintaining a judicial institution of the highest caliber while …

Express Preclusion Of The Federal Arbitration Act For All Bankruptcy-Related Matters, John R. Hardison

St. John's Law Review

(Excerpt)

This Article sets forth a more solid justification for bankruptcy courts to refuse to order arbitration of any matter related to and affecting a bankruptcy case through express preclusion. First, this Article describes the historical development of the Supreme Court’s holdings on preclusion of the FAA in general and on the courts of appeals’ current formulation of a bankruptcy exception to the FAA. Next, this Article discusses the statutory, historical, and policy-based support for reading the bankruptcy jurisdictional provisions as creating an express exception to the FAA, or alternatively as supporting an implied exception to the FAA. As discussed, …

Venezuela Undermines Gold Miner Crystallex's Attempts To Recover On Its Icsid Award, Sam Wesson

Loyola of Los Angeles International and Comparative Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Uncertain Status Of The Manifest Disregard Standard One Decade After Hall Street, Stuart M. Boyarsky

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) enables parties to obtain quick and final resolution to disputes without incurring the costs, delays, and occasional publicity of litigation. Indeed, section 10 of the FAA enumerates four specific grounds on which courts may vacate arbitral awards: corruption, fraud, impartiality, and misconduct or incompetence. Yet over the past 60 years, a debate has raged over the existence of an additional ground: the arbitrator’s manifest disregard of the law.

The Supreme Court first enounced this standard in dicta in its 1953 decision in Wilko v. Swan. Over next four decades, every federal circuit court slowly …

Doscher: The Second Circuit Frees Itself From Its Prior Look Through Approach, Fueling A Circuit Split, Peter Nelson

Arbitration Law Review

No abstract provided.

Judicial Recusation In The Federal Republic Of Germany, Sigmund A. Cohn

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

Effects Of International Judgments Relating To Awards, Maxi Scherer

Pepperdine Law Review

This Article looks at those judgments relating to international arbitral awards (award judgments) and, more precisely, at their extraterritorial effects. It analyzes whether an award judgment rendered in one jurisdiction has effects in other jurisdictions. For instance, if the award has been set aside6 in country A, does the set-aside judgment have effects on enforcement proceedings in country B? Similarly, if country C refuses to enforce an award on the basis that the tribunal has no jurisdiction, does this have a preclusive effect on enforcement proceedings pending in country D? These questions have been addressed in a number of recent …

Gateway-Schmateway: An Exchange Between George Bermann And Alan Rau, George Bermann, Alan Scott Rau

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of Local Patent Rules On Rate And Timing Of Case Resolution Relative To Claim Construction: An Empirical Study Of The Past Decade, Pauline M. Pelletier

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

First Options Of Chicago, Inc. V. Kaplan And The Kompetenz-Kompetenz Principle , Adrianna Dulic

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In 1995, the United States Supreme Court in First Options of Chicago, Incorporated v. Kaplan considered whether arbitral tribunals or courts should have the primary power to decide if parties agreed to arbitrate the merits of the dispute and whether the court of appeals should accept the district court's findings of fact and law or apply a de novo standard of review. The Court unanimously held that, unless the parties clearly and unmistakably provide otherwise, the question of whether the parties agreed to arbitrate is to be decided by the court, not the arbitral tribunal. Furthermore, in such a case, …

The Third Party Non-Signatory's Ability To Compel International Commercial Arbitration: Doing Justice Without Destroying Consent , James M. Hosking

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article analyzes the legal theories and other mechanisms employed in international commercial arbitration to achieve a workable compromise among the above-cited propositions. In so doing it touches on larger, more complex questions like the position of third parties in contract law, the jurisdictional foundations of arbitration, and the role of choice-of-law issues in determining the validity of the arbitration agreement. However important these broader concerns may be, they should not undermine the importance of the issue in its own right.

Jurisdiction Issues In International Arbitration, Mitchell L. Lathrop

Global Business Law Review

Arbitration, and particularly international arbitration, involves jurisdictional issues beyond those normally encountered in traditional judicial proceedings. This article will describe prominent jurisdictional issues in international arbitration based on recent pronouncements of judicial and arbitral authorities. From effecting notice of the arbitration proceedings to the improper composition of the arbitral authority, this article will discuss jurisdictional issues that can arise at any time during an arbitration proceeding, and how they can affect the enforcement of an award.

More Than Just Territorial: The 8th Circuit Establishment A Resourceful Precedent In Claiming Jurisdiction Over Denials To Compel Arbitration, Ashley Marshall

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This note argues that the Eighth Circuit's decision to claim jurisdiction in Industrial Wire Products, Inc. v. Costco Wholesale Corp. was practical and resourceful, as that court is better suited to decide matters of contract interpretation. The highly specialized Federal Circuit should devote its time and expertise to governing cases in particular areas of law, like patent litigation and administrative law. This note further argues that the Eighth Circuit preserved judicial resources and adhered to the parties' intentions in holding that the patent infringement claims were required to proceed through arbitration.

Whose Dictionary Controls?: Recent Challenges To The Term "Investment" In Icsid Arbirtration, Joseph M. Boddicker

American University International Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Minimal Role Of Federalism And State Law In Arbitration, Edward Brunet

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Rwandan Gacaca: An Experiment In Transitional Justice, Maya Goldstein Bolocan

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This paper argues that shifting the emphasis from the retributive nature of Gacaca to its restorative potential may, in the long term, offer better perspectives of peace and reconciliation to a deeply wounded society. It also argues that, where Gacaca retains its retributive element, it should do so while trying to respect the human rights of those brought before it. Part II of this paper briefly discusses the dominant model of transitional justice, namely the prosecutorial approach of criminal trials, and its effectiveness vis-A-vis alternatives that emphasize the search for truth and reconciliation instead of retribution. Part III provides a …

Arbitrator's Jurisdiction To Determine Arbitrability Of Labor Disputes Under Public Sector Collective Bargaining Agreements: Is The Arbitrator's Jurisdiction To Decide Arbitrability In The First Instance The Worst Of Both Worlds - Mclaughlin V. Chester Upland School District, An, Brian D. Kennedy

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The general rule permitting pre-arbitration adjudication of arbitrability has been criticized as an invitation to forum-shopping and a "race to the courthouse," an unnecessary obstacle to expeditious resolution of labor disputes,6 and a bad faith attempt by one party (usually the employer) to breach a contractual commitment to arbitration.7 Overruling a number of its own precedents following this majority rule, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently held in McLaughlin v. Chester Upland School District that an arbitrator has the sole and exclusive jurisdiction in the first instance to decide the arbitrability of a labor dispute arising out of a public …

Injunctions Pending Arbitration: Do The Courts Really Have Jurisdiction, Elizabeth Phillips

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The issue of injunctive relief pending arbitration stems from the language of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA), 5 which compels arbitration.16 The instant decision falls within the growing majority of cases holding that the issuance of an injunction to preserve the status quo pending arbitration fulfills the court's obligation under the FAA to enforce a valid agreement to arbitrate. 7

Curtailing The Arbitrator's Power: Valid Withholding Of Jurisdictionor Judicial Flaw, Kevin L. Wibbenmeyer

Journal of Dispute Resolution

With the movement toward alternative dispute resolution comes the issue of how much freedom arbitrators will be given before the courts will find the arbitrator's rulings to be beyond their jurisdiction. This Note will provide an understanding of the decision in Cobler v. Stanley, Barber, Southard, Brown & Associates, where the court limited the power of the arbitrator. 2 Further, this Note will explain how Cobler is inconsistent with California case law which suggests that great deference shall be given to the power of arbitrators.

Trial By Jury

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.