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Full-Text Articles in Law

The Market For Justice, The "Litigation Explosion," And The "Verdict Bubble:" A Closer Look At Vanishing Trials, Frederic N. Smalkin, Frederic N. C. Smalkin Nov 2005

The Market For Justice, The "Litigation Explosion," And The "Verdict Bubble:" A Closer Look At Vanishing Trials, Frederic N. Smalkin, Frederic N. C. Smalkin

Faculty Scholarship

Recently, a respected jurist has lamented the declining number of federal jury trials. Chief Judge William Young of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, writing in the Federal Lawyer, pointed out that jury trials in federal civil cases declined 26% in the decade between 1989 and 1999, which he attributed to four factors: the district court judiciary’s “loss of focus” on the core function of trying jury cases; the business community’s loss of interest in jury adjudication (“opting out of the legal system altogether” in favor of arbitration); Congress’s “marginalizing the district court judiciary”; and …


The Nature And Enforcement Of Investor Rights Under Investment Treaties: Do Investment Treaties Have A Bright Future, Susan Franck Oct 2005

The Nature And Enforcement Of Investor Rights Under Investment Treaties: Do Investment Treaties Have A Bright Future, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

The number of investment treaties has surged in the past decade. Even now, the United States and Canada are actively engaged in programs designed to facilitate the completion of multilateral treaties such as the Dominican Republic-Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) and Bilateral Investment Treaties (BITs). These investment treaties act like economic bills of rights, which grant foreign investors substantive protections and procedural rights to facilitate investment. Sovereigns, meanwhile, may benefit from these treaties by obtaining increased foreign direct investment, which may promote the development of their country's infrastructure 6 and offer citizens basic services including access to clean water, …


Market Solutions To Market Problems: Re-Examining Arbitral Immunity As A Solution To Unfairness In Securities Arbitration, Peter B. Rutledge Oct 2005

Market Solutions To Market Problems: Re-Examining Arbitral Immunity As A Solution To Unfairness In Securities Arbitration, Peter B. Rutledge

Scholarly Works

This paper addresses the fairness of securities arbitrations in the United States. A few decades ago, such a topic would have been relegated to the academic hinterlands. For the first fifty years following the enactment of the nation's securities laws, pre-dispute arbitration agreements between investors and the securities industry were not enforceable. In a series of decisions in the late 1980s, the Supreme Court reversed course and held that such disputes were indeed arbitrable. Following those decisions, arbitration quickly became the preferred method of dispute resolution for cases arising under the nation's securities laws, especially disputes between investors and broker-dealers. …


Democracy And Dispute Resolution: The Problem Of Arbitration, Richard C. Reuben Apr 2005

Democracy And Dispute Resolution: The Problem Of Arbitration, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Scholars have approached arbitration, especially under the Federal Arbitration Act, from a variety of perspectives, including doctrinal, historical, empirical, and practical. One aspect that has not yet been fully considered, however, is the relationship between arbitration and constitutional democracy. Yet, as a dispute-resolution process that is often sanctioned by the government, that sometimes inextricably intertwines governmental and private conduct, and that derives its legitimacy from the government, it is appropriate--indeed, our responsibility--to ask whether arbitration furthers the goals of democratic governance. It is only sensible that state-supported dispute resolution in a democracy should strengthen, rather than diminish, democratic governance and …


Deterrence And Implied Limits On Arbitral Power, Michael A. Scodro Mar 2005

Deterrence And Implied Limits On Arbitral Power, Michael A. Scodro

All Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.


The Legitimacy Crisis In Investment Treaty Arbitration: Privatizing Public International Law Through Inconsistent Decisions, Susan Franck Mar 2005

The Legitimacy Crisis In Investment Treaty Arbitration: Privatizing Public International Law Through Inconsistent Decisions, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.


Party Autonomy In Choice Of Commercial Law: The Failure Of Revised U.C.C. § 1-301 And A Proposal For Broader Reform, Jack M. Graves Jan 2005

Party Autonomy In Choice Of Commercial Law: The Failure Of Revised U.C.C. § 1-301 And A Proposal For Broader Reform, Jack M. Graves

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


Mobile Home Mania? Protecting Procedurally Fair Arbitration In A Consumer Microcosm, Amy J. Schmitz Jan 2005

Mobile Home Mania? Protecting Procedurally Fair Arbitration In A Consumer Microcosm, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Consumers' lack of warranty remedies prompted Congress to enact the 2000 Manufactured Housing Improvement Act (MHIA). Under the Act, the Office of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) must develop a program for resolving MH warranty disputes by the end of 2005. This article provides input regarding that program. It also calls for broader protection of procedural fairness in arbitration of disputes regarding warranties for mobile or manufactured homes (referred to in the article as MHs for ease of reference). Although HUD's program aims to create a process for resolving warranty disputes among manufacturers, dealers and installers, this article proposes that …


The Vocation Of International Arbitrators, Catherine A. Rogers Jan 2005

The Vocation Of International Arbitrators, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

This Essay examines the vocation of the international arbitrator. I begin by evaluating, under sociological frameworks developed in literature on Weberian theories of the professions, how the arbitration community is organized and regulated. Arbitrators operate in a largely private and unregulated market for services, access to which is essentially controlled by what might be considered a governing cartel of the most elite arbitrators. I conclude my description with an account of how recently international arbitrators have begun to display a professional impulse, meaning efforts to present themselves as a profession to obtain the benefits of professionalization. Professional status is often …


Regulating International Arbitrators: A Functional Approach To Developing Standards Of Conduct, Catherine A. Rogers Jan 2005

Regulating International Arbitrators: A Functional Approach To Developing Standards Of Conduct, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

Some scholars have protested that arbitrators are subject to less exacting regulation than barbers and taxidermists. The real problem with international arbitrators, however, is not that they are subject to less regulation, but that no one agrees about how they should be regulated. The primary reason for judicial and scholarly disagreement is that, instead of a coherent theory, analysis of arbitrator conduct erroneously relies on a misleading judicial referent and a methodologic failure to separate conduct standards (meaning those norms or rules that guide arbitrators' professional conduct) from enforcement standards (meaning those narrow grounds under which an arbitral award can …


Arbitration: Governance Benefits And Enforcement Costs, Keith N. Hylton Jan 2005

Arbitration: Governance Benefits And Enforcement Costs, Keith N. Hylton

Faculty Scholarship

These remarks, presented at the 2004 AALS Annual Meeting panel on civil procedure, review the economic theory of arbitration and related empirical evidence. For parties who can choose between alternative legal regimes, the key determinants of that choice are the governance benefits and enforcement costs connected to the rules under each regime. The choice between arbitration and litigation should be made on the same basis. The empirical literature, though sparse, suggests that superior governance benefits provide a significant reason for arbitration agreements.


The Nature Of Arbitral Authority: A Comment On Lesotho Highlands, William W. Park Jan 2005

The Nature Of Arbitral Authority: A Comment On Lesotho Highlands, William W. Park

Faculty Scholarship

Arbitration unfolds within an enclosure created by the contract terms and the applicable arbitration law. Some measure of judicial scrutiny must be imposed to ensure that an award does not fall beyond an arbitrator’s authority. But how should one identify excess of authority? The House of Lords decision in Lesotho Highlands v. Impreglio serves as a prism through which to separate several themes that inhere in the nature of arbitral authority. In rejecting arguments that an error about the currency of an award represented an excess of jurisdiction, their Lordships confirmed a healthy appreciation that arbitrators do not exceed their …


An Essay Challenging The Racially Biased Selection Of Arbitrators For Employment Discrimination Suits, Michael Z. Green Jan 2005

An Essay Challenging The Racially Biased Selection Of Arbitrators For Employment Discrimination Suits, Michael Z. Green

Faculty Scholarship

Since 1991, employers have increasingly decided to require that employees agree to arbitrate statutory employment discrimination claims as a condition of employment. This Essay seeks to expose some of the potential discriminatory components that may arise in the arbitrator selection process while highlighting the lack of legal remedy for those who believe that employers, in conjunction with neutral service provders, have stacked the pool in favor of having arbitrators who tend to be older, white and male. The Essay suggests the use of 42 U.S.C. Section 1981 as a potential remedy and challenge to the dearth of arbitrators of color …


Final Offer Arbitration, Harold I. Abramson Jan 2005

Final Offer Arbitration, Harold I. Abramson

Scholarly Works

No abstract provided.


Creeping Mandatory Arbitration: Is It Just?, Jean R. Sternlight Jan 2005

Creeping Mandatory Arbitration: Is It Just?, Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

This Article examines the phenomenon of mandatory binding arbitration, imposed on consumers and employees, and considers whether this type of dispute resolution serves or instead undermines justice. It is fairly easy to attack binding arbitration as unfair, for example pointing to the fact that it undermines rights to jury trial and to proceed in class actions. However, this Article seeks to examine the phenomenon of mandatory binding arbitration from a broader perspective, recognizing that it is inappropriate to assume that justice requires our existing system of litigation, with its class actions and jury trial. The Article concludes that while informal …


Developing A Law/Business Collaboration Through Pace's Securities Arbitration Clinic, Jill I. Gross Jan 2005

Developing A Law/Business Collaboration Through Pace's Securities Arbitration Clinic, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

This article details an interdisciplinary collaboration between the Securities Arbitration Clinic at Pace Law School (“SAC”) and the graduate program at Pace University's Lubin School of Business, designed and initiated by the authors. The purpose of the collaboration is to provide a co-curricular learning experience to both J.D. and graduate business students1 while enhancing the pro bono legal services delivered by SAC to its clients. Part I of this article details the history of SAC before the authors initiated the collaboration, and the reasons SAC needed financial expertise. Part II of this article describes models of interdisciplinary collaboration, particularly between …


The Market For Justice, The "Litigation Explosion," And The "Verdict Bubble": A Closer Look At Vanishing Trials, Frederic N. Smalkin, Frederic N.C. Smalkin Jan 2005

The Market For Justice, The "Litigation Explosion," And The "Verdict Bubble": A Closer Look At Vanishing Trials, Frederic N. Smalkin, Frederic N.C. Smalkin

All Faculty Scholarship

Recently, a respected jurist has lamented the declining number of federal jury trials. Chief Judge William Young of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, writing in the Federal Lawyer, pointed out that jury trials in federal civil cases declined 26% in the decade between 1989 and 1999, which he attributed to four factors: the district court judiciary's loss of focus on the core function of trying jury cases; the business community's loss of interest in jury adjudication (opting out of the legal system altogether in favor of arbitration); Congress's marginalizing the district court judiciary; and the …