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Articles 1 - 13 of 13
Full-Text Articles in Law
Mass Arbitration 2.0, Andrew B. Nissensohn
Mass Arbitration 2.0, Andrew B. Nissensohn
Washington and Lee Law Review
Over the past four decades, corporate interests, in concert with the Supreme Court, have surgically dismantled the American civil litigation system. Enacted nearly a century ago, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) was once a procedural law mandating that federal courts enforce arbitration agreements between sophisticated parties with equal bargaining power. Through death by a thousand cuts, corporate interests shielded themselves from nearly all methods of en masse dispute resolution. These interests weaponized the FAA into a “one size fits all” means to compel potential litigants with unequal bargaining power into arbitration. The so-called “Arbitration Revolution” is the subject of much …
Barras V. Bb&T: Charting A Clear Path To Apply Concepcion Through A Quagmire Of Divergent Approaches, Jacob Johnson
Barras V. Bb&T;: Charting A Clear Path To Apply Concepcion Through A Quagmire Of Divergent Approaches, Jacob Johnson
Mercer Law Review
A recent series of Supreme Court opinions, climaxing in the landmark case AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, has undermined the validity of applying unconscionability to arbitration agreements and generated divergent opinions in lower courts. The saving clause of the Federal Arbitration Act of 1927, 9 U.S.C. § 2 (FAA saving clause), states that "an agreement in writing to submit to arbitration ... shall be valid, irrevocable, and enforceable, save upon such grounds as exist ... for the revocation of any contract." Until Concepcion, unconscionability was an established ground for revoking arbitration agreements under the FAA saving clause. In …
The Unjustified Furor Over Securities Arbitration, Gilbert R. Serota
The Unjustified Furor Over Securities Arbitration, Gilbert R. Serota
Pepperdine Law Review
No abstract provided.
First Options Of Chicago, Inc. V. Kaplan And The Kompetenz-Kompetenz Principle , Adrianna Dulic
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, …
Charge Me, Pay Me, But Don't Even Think Of Litigating Me: The Dominance Of Arbitration In Truth-In-Lending Claims , M. Susan Hale
Charge Me, Pay Me, But Don't Even Think Of Litigating Me: The Dominance Of Arbitration In Truth-In-Lending Claims , M. Susan Hale
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
This article analyzes the impact of the courts' ever increasing priority to enforce arbitration agreements in Truth In Lending Act (TILA) claims and reform. Part I entails a general discussion of TILA's logistics; the goals, the means, and the remedies. Part II briefly traces the rise of arbitration as well as evaluating its various advantages and disadvantages. Part III reports on the current emphasis of enforcing arbitration agreements in federal courts by explaining the basis of enforcing the agreement. Part IV explores the impact of arbitrating TILA claims on the claim and on individuals. Part V provides an analysis of …
The State Of Arbitral Fees After Green Tree Financial: Uncertainty And Contradiction Demands Further Guidance From The Supreme Court, Kevin C. Clark
The State Of Arbitral Fees After Green Tree Financial: Uncertainty And Contradiction Demands Further Guidance From The Supreme Court, Kevin C. Clark
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
There are millions of employees in America who work every day without regard to the technical and seemingly mundane matters that govern their employment. What they don't realize however, is that their employment may be governed by an arbitration agreement. The terms of the arbitration agreement may be unclear until a dispute arises. This is particularly applicable in the area of arbitral fees, where there is a split among United States Courts of Appeals when addressing the issue of who should pay the fees arising from the arbitration of employment disputes. This fissure in American jurisprudence is the subject of …
Reframing The Dilemma Of Contractually Expanded Judicial Review: Arbitral Appeal Vs. Vacatur , Eric Van Ginkel
Reframing The Dilemma Of Contractually Expanded Judicial Review: Arbitral Appeal Vs. Vacatur , Eric Van Ginkel
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
The Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") of 1925 was created to ensure enforceability of agreements to arbitrate. The FAA is the centerpiece of the federal arbitration policy as construed by the Supreme Court. Section 10(a) FAA enumerates grounds on which an arbitral award can be set aside. The central issue discussed herein is whether parties can agree by contract to allow one of the parties to initiate review of the arbitral award by a court that would otherwise have jurisdiction over those parties, or whether the court's powers are somehow limited to the grounds for vacatur enumerated in Section 10(a) FAA. …
A Fighting Chance: The Proposed Servicemembers Access To Justice Act & Its Potential Effects On Binding Arbitration Agreements, Sean M. Hardy
A Fighting Chance: The Proposed Servicemembers Access To Justice Act & Its Potential Effects On Binding Arbitration Agreements, Sean M. Hardy
Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal
In August 2008 a bill was introduced in the United States Senate that clearly states Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights of 1994 (USERRA) claims supersede any preexisting arbitration clauses in employment agreements. This bill, known as the Servicemembers Access to Justice Act (SAJA), would restore full access to the federal court system for USERRA plaintiffs. This paper examines the SAJA and its potential effects on the USERRA. It begins with a survey of the history behind the passage of the USERRA, as well as the FAA. Next, it describes the two federal circuit court decisions that have led to …
A Pro-Congress Approach To Arbitration And Unconscionability, Stephen Friedman
A Pro-Congress Approach To Arbitration And Unconscionability, Stephen Friedman
Stephen E Friedman
This Essay endeavors to resolve a current controversy involving the application of the unconscionability doctrine to arbitration agreements. The pro-arbitration policies of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and the anti-arbitration instincts of the unconscionability doctrine are difficult to reconcile. Instead of clarity in this area of law, we have a series of hints and clues, often contradictory, from the Supreme Court. Although Professor David Horton and I share a desire to clarify this area of the law, we have nearly opposite views about how this should be accomplished. This Essay sets forth my position and also responds to Unconscionability Wars, …
Interlocutory Appeals Under The Federal Arbitration Act And The Effect On The District Court’S Proceedings, Michael P. Winkler
Interlocutory Appeals Under The Federal Arbitration Act And The Effect On The District Court’S Proceedings, Michael P. Winkler
Oklahoma Law Review
No abstract provided.
Arbitration, Unconscionability, And Equilibrium: The Return Of Unconscionability Analysis As A Counterweight To Arbitration Formalism, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Arbitration, Unconscionability, And Equilibrium: The Return Of Unconscionability Analysis As A Counterweight To Arbitration Formalism, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
However incomplete, unaggressive, or sub-optimal, unconscionability analysis of arbitration agreements has made something of a comeback in the late twentieth century and early twenty-first century. Just as nature abhors a vacuum, water seeks to be level, and ecosystems work to retain environmental stability, the legal system has witnessed an incremental effort by lower courts to soften the rough edges of the Supreme Court's pro-arbitration jurisprudence through rediscovery of what might be called the “unconscionability norm”--a collective judicial view as to what aspects of an arbitration arrangement are too unfair to merit judicial enforcement. In rediscovering and reinvigorating the unconscionability norm …
Bootstrapping And Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Arbitral Infatuation And The Decline Of Consent, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Bootstrapping And Slouching Toward Gomorrah: Arbitral Infatuation And The Decline Of Consent, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
The Seventh Amendment to the Constitution preserves for litigants a right to a jury trial in actions at law. The right to a jury trial does not attach for equitable actions, but in cases presenting claims for both legal and equitable relief a right to a jury trial exists for common questions of fact. Although many modern statutes and claims did not exist in 1791, the Amendment has been interpreted to require a jury trial of statutory claims seeking monetary damages, the classic form of legal relief, so long as there is a relatively apt analogy between the modern statutory …
A Better Approach To Arbitrability, Jeffrey W. Stempel
A Better Approach To Arbitrability, Jeffrey W. Stempel
Scholarly Works
Historically, Anglo-American courts refused to enforce arbitration agreements, jealously guarding their dispute resolution monopoly. During the early twentieth century, merchants and attorneys began seeking legislation requiring courts to defer to arbitration. The United States Abitration Act took effect January 1, 1926 and has remained essentially unchanged. It was written with the implicit assumption that it would be invoked by commercial actors having relatively equal bargaining power and emotive appeal to a jury. The Act says nothing to direct the court's inquiry concerning the quality of either party's assent to the arbitration clause other than requiring a written arbitration agreement and …