Law Commons^™

A Presumptively Better Approach To Arbitrability, John A. E. Pottow, Jacob Brege, Tara J. Hawley

Articles

One of the most complex problems in the arbitration field is the question of who decides disputes over the scope of an arbitrator's purported authority. Courts in Canada and the United States have taken different approaches to this fundamental question of "arbitrability" that necessarily arises when one party disputes the contractual validity of the underlying "container" contract carrying the arbitration clause. If arbitration is a creature of contract, and contract is a product of consensual agreement, then any dispute that impugns the underlying consent of the parties to the container contract implicates the arbitration agreement itself (i.e., no contract, no …

Only One Kick At The Cat: A Contextual Rubric For Evaluating Res Judicata And Collateral Estoppel In International Commercial Arbitration, Randy D. Gordon

Faculty Scholarship

Arbitration is the preferred method of resolving disputes arising out of international commercial transactions. It stands outside national legal systems because contracting parties agree in advance that they want neutral arbitrators — not local judges and juries — deciding who is at fault when a commercial relationship breaks down. But arbitration nevertheless butts up against litigation from time to time, often because one party attempts to arbitrate a matter that has been litigated to conclusion or vice versa. This article examines — through a contextual approach — questions of preclusion that thereby arise and ultimately suggests that res judicata and …

Re Atlantic Pilotage Authority And Canadian Merchant Service Guild, Innis Christie

Innis Christie Collection

Employee Grievances alleging breach of Article 27.05 of the Collective Agreement between the parties dated October 16, 2000, which the parties agreed is the Collective Agreement that governs this matter, in that the Union alleges that each of the Grievors was given notice of recall in accordance with Article 27.05, each was available for the ten-hour period as required and each submitted a request to be paid in accordance with Article 27.05, which was refused. The Union seeks an order that the Employer pay each Grievor at the rate of pay specified in Article 27.05.

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 …

Arbitration And Arbitrability: Toward An Expectation Model, Mark Berger

Faculty Works

The process of arbitration has been transformed by a series of Supreme Court decisions that have increased the enforceability of arbitration awards. Beyond that, the Supreme Court has also taken steps to ensure the enforceability of promises to arbitrate. These latter arbitrability issues raise questions as to who will decide whether an enforceable agreement to arbitrate has been made and what standard shall be applied in making that determination. This article explores the arbitrability question in the wide variety of settings in which it occurs, including post-contract disputes, successor parties, and the separability doctrine which focuses on challenges to the …

Re Saint John (City Of) And Saint John Fire Fighters' Association, Iaff Local 771 (Davidson), Innis Christie, G Lawson, A Levine

Innis Christie Collection

Union grievance on behalf of the Grievor alleging that he was hired and subsequently fired without due process, contrary to the 2001-2003 Collective Agreement between the parties, and seeking full redress. At the outset of the hearing in this matter the parties agreed that this Board of Arbitration is properly constituted and, sub­ject to the City's preliminary objection, properly seized of this matter. The City made a preliminary objection to the jurisdiction of this Board of Arbitration to hear this matter based on the allegation that the Grievor was never an employee of the City; i.e., that he was never …

Commercial Arbitration In The U.S.: The Arbitrability Of Disputes Arising From Statute-Based Claims, Sylvie Frankignoul

LLM Theses and Essays

A leading contemporary expert in arbitration has explained: "The concept of arbitrability determines the point at which the experience of contractual freedom ends and the public mission of adjudication begins. In effect, it establishes a dividing line between the transactional pursuit of private rights and courts' role as custodians and interpreters of the public interest." 1 A major part of the arbitrability doctrine deals with the kind of claims that can fall within the scope of agreements for private dispute resolution. Arbitration clauses are an integral part of the parties' transactions. Nevertheless, the American judiciary historically has refused to enforce …

Arbitral Situs: Considerations And Consequences, Rajdeep Singh

LLM Theses and Essays

It is the law of the forum that is applicable to matters like arbitrability of the dispute, the validity of the arbitration agreement, the jurisdiction of the arbitrators, their appointment, removal and replacement and the challenge to their authority. Apart from these matters the law of the arbitral situs also governs the conflict of laws rules applicable to the dispute. Though the principle of party autonomy allows the parties to agree to a procedural law other than that of the arbitral situs, they still have to comply with the mandatory provisions of the law of the venue. In case they …

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

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 …

Reconsidering The Employment Contract Exclusion In Section 1 Of The Federal Arbitration Act: Correcting The Judiciary's Failure Of Statutory Vision, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

The Federal Arbitration Act (the Act), seeks to eliminate centuries of perceived judicial hostility toward arbitration agreements. The Act made written arbitration agreements involving interstate commerce specifically enforceable. It also provided a procedural structure for enforcing awards, which were protected through deferential judicial review. The Act intended to have a wide reach, employing a broad definition of commerce that has presumably grown in breadth along with the expansion of judicial notions of commerce. Although courts applied the Act in tentative and cautious fashion until the 1960's, arbitration gained momentum during the 1970's and the 1980's. Despite growing judicial enthusiasm for …

Re Eastern Provincial Airways Ltd And International Association Of Machinists And Aerospace Workers, Innis Christie

Innis Christie Collection

The grievance before me arose out of the back-to-work proce­dures followed by the company after the settlement of the labour dispute between the parties which lasted from early January to March 10, 1983. In March the company was still involved in a dispute with its pilots so both parties understood that it would be some time before the company returned to normal operations. On March 10th, following a marathon session, the parties concluded the back-to-work agreement under which the issues before me arise.

Re Corporation Of The City Of Toronto And Canadian Union Of Public Employees, Local 79, Innis Christie, M Tate, Bm W. Paulin

Innis Christie Collection

Preliminary Issue relating to arbitrability of judicial inquiry report. Report admissible.

Employee grievances alleging discriminatory demotion and discharge without reasonable cause contrary to art. 2.01 of the collective agreement between the parties in force from January 1, 1977 until December 31, 1977. Grievor seeks reinstatement to his former position without loss of salary, seniority or benefits and to have the alleged incident stricken from his record.