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Full-Text Articles in Law

Bit Unfair: An Illustration Of The Backlash Against International Arbitration In Latin America, A, David Ma Jul 2012

Bit Unfair: An Illustration Of The Backlash Against International Arbitration In Latin America, A, David Ma

Journal of Dispute Resolution

With the survival of BITs at fulcrum, the Second Circuit recently decided a highly publicized and notorious case applying international arbitration in Chevron Corp. v. Republic of Ecuador. This comment will discuss Chevron and its effects within the wider corpus of BIT international arbitration to provide an illustration of the current debate and status of the BIT framework. The purported benefits BITs provide to signatory countries exist theoretically, and to test these theoretical underpinnings, this comment will discuss Chevron for the purpose of providing real context to a predominately academic debate. Chevron shall demonstrate that theoretical effects and practical effects …


Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston Jun 2012

Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston

Maureen A Weston

Athletes in a professional sports league in the United States are members of players unions, which assist their athletes in obtaining representation when they are involved in dispute resolution proceedings associated with disciplinary actions. However, individual athletes who participate in international competitions do not enjoy the same benefits. When these athletes are required to submit to mandatory drug testing, with attendant potential criminal liability, and to mandatory arbitration, they should be provided meaningful access to competent legal representation when their athletic careers are in jeopardy. This article considers the legal framework, process, and recourse for athletes in international competition to …


Report To Law Revision Commission Regarding Recommendations For Changes To California Arbitration Law , Roger Alford Mar 2012

Report To Law Revision Commission Regarding Recommendations For Changes To California Arbitration Law , Roger Alford

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

In this Article, Professor Alford discusses a report by the Law Revision Commission recommending that certain changes be made to arbitration law in California. It begins by outlining the history of arbitration in California, from its 1961 adoption of the Uniform Arbitration Act, to the 1988 enactment of an international arbitration statute modeled on the UNCITRAL Model Law, to the 1989 enactment of Section 1281.8, which allowed courts to grants provisions remedies to parties involved in arbitration proceedings. It also provides a general overview of the purpose and practice of arbitration law. Then, it provides a chapter-by-chapter analysis the Law …


East Meets West: An International Dialogue On Mediation And Med-Arb In The United States And China, Thomas J. Stipanowich, Jung Yang, Jay Welsh, Chen Qiming, Peter Robinson, Tan Jinghui, Chen Guang, Jeff Kichaven, Denise Madigan, Wang Hongsong, Zhang Jianhua Feb 2012

East Meets West: An International Dialogue On Mediation And Med-Arb In The United States And China, Thomas J. Stipanowich, Jung Yang, Jay Welsh, Chen Qiming, Peter Robinson, Tan Jinghui, Chen Guang, Jeff Kichaven, Denise Madigan, Wang Hongsong, Zhang Jianhua

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This Second Beijing Arbitration Commission (BAC)/Straus Institute for Dispute Resolution International Videoconference, following up on last year's successful inaugural program, will provide different perspectives on the current BAC initiative and evolving attitudes toward mediation and med-arb. Topics include: (1) the development and current state of business mediation in the U.S.; (2) the challenges and opportunities confronting China in developing stand-alone business mediation; (3) reflections on the skills necessary for mediators; (4) common pitfalls in mediation; (5) perspectives on med-arb (as opposed to stand-alone mediation); and (6) how to most effectively use mediation in conjunction with arbitration procedures.


Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston Feb 2012

Doping Control, Mandatory Arbitration, And Process Dangers For Accused Athletes In International Sports , Maureen A. Weston

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Athletes in a professional sports league in the United States are members of players unions, which assist their athletes in obtaining representation when they are involved in dispute resolution proceedings associated with disciplinary actions. However, individual athletes who participate in international competitions do not enjoy the same benefits. When these athletes are required to submit to mandatory drug testing, with attendant potential criminal liability, and to mandatory arbitration, they should be provided meaningful access to competent legal representation when their athletic careers are in jeopardy. This article considers the legal framework, process, and recourse for athletes in international competition to …


Penalty Clauses And The Cisg, Jack Graves Jan 2012

Penalty Clauses And The Cisg, Jack Graves

Scholarly Works

Commercial agreements often provide for “fixed sums” payable upon a specified breach. Such agreements are generally enforced in civil law jurisdictions. In contrast, the common law distinguishes between “liquidated damages” and “penalty” clauses, enforcing the former, while invalidating the latter as a penalty. The UN Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods (CISG) does not directly address the payment of “fixed sums” as damages, and the validity of “penalty” clauses has, traditionally, been relegated to otherwise applicable domestic national law under CISG Article 4. This traditional orthodoxy has recently been challenged—suggesting that the fate of a penalty clause …


Court Litigation Over Arbitration Agreements: Is It Time For A New Default Rule?, Jack Graves Jan 2012

Court Litigation Over Arbitration Agreements: Is It Time For A New Default Rule?, Jack Graves

Scholarly Works

Court litigation over the existence or validity of arbitration agreements is a major threat to the efficacy of international commercial arbitration. While New York Convention Article II(3) requires a court to “refer the parties to arbitration” when faced with a valid and effective arbitration agreement, it fails to provide any guidance with respect to the process for answering that question, thus leaving the issue to national law. A recalcitrant respondent may, therefore, have a variety of options for court challenges—based on a disparate array of national laws—in seeking to delay or at least complicate any claims subject to arbitration. This …


Court Litigation Over Arbitration Agreements: Is It Time For A New Default Rule?, Jack Graves Jan 2012

Court Litigation Over Arbitration Agreements: Is It Time For A New Default Rule?, Jack Graves

Scholarly Works

Court litigation over the existence or validity of arbitration agreements is a major threat to the efficacy of international commercial arbitration. While New York Convention Article II(3) requires a court to “refer the parties to arbitration” when faced with a valid and effective arbitration agreement, it fails to provide any guidance with respect to the process for answering that question, thus leaving the issue to national law. A recalcitrant respondent may, therefore, have a variety of options for court challenges—based on a disparate array of national laws—in seeking to delay or at least complicate any claims subject to arbitration. This …


Border Skirmishes: The Intersection Between Litigation And International Commercial Arbitration, S. I. Strong Jan 2012

Border Skirmishes: The Intersection Between Litigation And International Commercial Arbitration, S. I. Strong

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In many ways, the relationship between litigation and international commercial arbitration is a curious one, with experts adopting diametrically opposed positions on how the two procedures do or should interact. For example, some people take the view that international commercial arbitration is a uniquely self-contained dispute resolution mechanism that proceeds entirely independent of state control.'


Court Intervention In International Arbitration: The Case For Compulsory Judicial Internationalism Symposium, Frederic Bachand Jan 2012

Court Intervention In International Arbitration: The Case For Compulsory Judicial Internationalism Symposium, Frederic Bachand

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Part I sets out in more detail the proposed interpretive rule. It does so by explaining why the relevant international normative context should always matter when courts are called upon to resolve questions of international arbitration law to which local sources provide no clear answers. In Part H, I address the issue of how precisely that context ought to bear upon the interpretive process. In doing so, I highlight some important distinctions regarding how that context should bear upon the courts' reasoning depending on whether the issue in dispute is governed by uniform law instruments-such as the New York Convention …


Interference Of The Court Of The Seat With International Arbitration, The Symposium, Giulia Carbone Jan 2012

Interference Of The Court Of The Seat With International Arbitration, The Symposium, Giulia Carbone

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article looks upon two fundamental questions: (1) whether arbitrators should comply with a local court's order aimed at suspending or interrupting the running of arbitral proceedings, and (2) what type of remedies should a party receive when courts unjustly interfere with their right to arbitrate. This article will explore these two questions in four parts. Part II focuses on the interference with international commercial arbitration by the court at the place of the arbitration. It does so by taking into account ICC cases, some relevant national judgments, and deals with the solutions offered by Articles 8 and 16 of …


Convergence And Divergence In International Dispute Resolution Symposium, Peter Rutledge Jan 2012

Convergence And Divergence In International Dispute Resolution Symposium, Peter Rutledge

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This symposium submission draws heavily on law and economic literature to develop its thesis. Part I lays out the literature behind the parties' choice to opt for arbitration. It also builds upon that literature by attempting to sketch out some preliminary reasons why parties might opt for arbitration over another form of dispute resolution. Part II charts how, along various axes, arbitration has begun to converge with litigation - thereby depriving it of a comparative advantage that it once enjoyed - due to innovations in arbitration and innovations in the field of international civil litigation. In brief, the traditional advantages …


Introduction To The Court Of Arbitration For Sport (Cas) & The Role Of National Courts In International Sports Disputes, An Symposium, Louise Reilly Jan 2012

Introduction To The Court Of Arbitration For Sport (Cas) & The Role Of National Courts In International Sports Disputes, An Symposium, Louise Reilly

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The founding purpose of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was to take international sports disputes out of national courts and provide a highly specialized forum where those disputes could be heard and decided, quickly and inexpensively, according to a flexible procedure. Since its inception, CAS has gained the recognition and trust of the international sports community and today, is the last instance of appeal for parties involved in a wide-range of sports-related disputes, including those related to all Olympic sports and many non-Olympic sports, football disputes, doping infractions and international commercial contracts. CAS has come to provide sportsmen …


Navigating The Borders Between International Commercial Arbitration And U.S. Federal Courts: A Jurisprudential Gps Symposium, S. I. Strong Jan 2012

Navigating The Borders Between International Commercial Arbitration And U.S. Federal Courts: A Jurisprudential Gps Symposium, S. I. Strong

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Finally, the purpose of this Article is not to provide answers to particular questions, since far too much depends on the individual facts and circumstances of a particular dispute to allow for abstract generalizations. Instead, the goal is to identify a useful framework for analysis of matters relating to international commercial arbitration so that newcomers and infrequent participants in this area of law can approach their specific concerns with a higher degree of understanding and sophistication.