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Dispute Resolution and Arbitration

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Federal Arbitration Act

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The Lost Controversy Limitation Of The Federal Arbitration Act, Stephen Friedman Apr 2012

The Lost Controversy Limitation Of The Federal Arbitration Act, Stephen Friedman

Stephen E Friedman

Despite Congress’s deliberate limitation of the Federal Arbitration Act (the “FAA”) to disputes arising out of a contract containing an arbitration provision, broader arbitration provisions are ubiquitous. Courts invariably enforce such provisions under the FAA. Notably, the Supreme Court has almost entirely disregarded the relevant language of the FAA and has ignored the conflict between the FAA’s narrow language and the broad language typically found in arbitration provisions. In so doing, the Court has quietly and inappropriately elevated the language of private agreements above the language of the statute. In this article, Professor Friedman first identifies the origin of the …


Purpose, Precedent, And Politics: Why Concepcion Covers Less Than You Think, Michael A. Helfand Dec 2011

Purpose, Precedent, And Politics: Why Concepcion Covers Less Than You Think, Michael A. Helfand

Michael A Helfand

This article sketches some possible limitations on the impact AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion will have going forward. While many have seen the Supreme Court’s decision as simultaneously signaling an end to the viability of class action lawsuits and undermining principles of federalism, there may be reasons to believe that it will not have implications quite so far reaching. Specifically, this article proposes three reasons why Concepcion’s impact may be limited. First, the decision lends itself to a more narrow reading, which simply demands that courts take the entire of an arbitration agreement into account before deploying common law defenses to …