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Articles 1 - 8 of 8

Full-Text Articles in Law

Mandatory Predispute Consumer Arbitration, Structural Bias, And Incentivizing Procedural Safeguards, Nancy A. Welsh Oct 2012

Mandatory Predispute Consumer Arbitration, Structural Bias, And Incentivizing Procedural Safeguards, Nancy A. Welsh

Faculty Scholarship

Within the past several decades, there has been an explosion in the creation, institutionalization and use of “alternative” dispute resolution procedures. Mandatory predispute arbitration has generated the most controversy because it appears beset with structural bias. The recent cases of AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion and Compucredit Corp. v. Greenwood have raised additional concerns as the Supreme Court has announced that corporations can force consumers to arbitrate their private and statutory claims and give up their rights to pursue class relief. This Article begins by arguing that the Supreme Court’s enthusiastic embrace of mandatory predispute arbitration should be understood primarily …


Reframing The Dilemma Of Contractually Expanded Judicial Review: Arbitral Appeal Vs. Vacatur , Eric Van Ginkel Apr 2012

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. …


Contracting Around Ruaa: Default Rules, Mandatory Rules, And Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards, Christopher R. Drahozal Apr 2012

Contracting Around Ruaa: Default Rules, Mandatory Rules, And Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards, Christopher R. Drahozal

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

By specifying that its provisions generally are default rules and listing particular exceptions, the Revised Uniform Arbitration Act (“RUAA”) provides much needed certainty and avoids unnecessary litigation, at least compared to the Federal Arbitration Act, which does not always identify which of its provisions are default rules. In one important respect, however, RUAA jettisons that valuable certainty. The RUAA drafters left open (or at least sought to leave open) the question whether parties can contract to expand the grounds for judicial review of arbitration awards beyond those set out in the statute. In other words, the drafters purported not to …


"Expanded" Judicial Review Revisited: Kyocera Overturns Lapine, Eric Van Ginkel Mar 2012

"Expanded" Judicial Review Revisited: Kyocera Overturns Lapine, Eric Van Ginkel

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Just when you thought you could validly add a clause to your client's arbitration agreement providing that the losing party may take an appeal from the award to the district court having jurisdiction over the parties, think again. What was the law of the Ninth Circuit since December 1997, when a three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals decided LaPine Technology Corporation v. Kyocera Corporation ("LaPine I"), has just been reversed by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals sitting en banc. In its decision, on a rehearing of what the court refers to as " …


Judicial Review Of Olympic And International Sports Arbitration Awards: Trends And Observations , Matthew J. Mitten Feb 2012

Judicial Review Of Olympic And International Sports Arbitration Awards: Trends And Observations , Matthew J. Mitten

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article provides an overview of the nature and scope of judicial review of Olympic and international sports arbitration awards, primarily those rendered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (based in Lausanne, Switzerland) and their review by the Swiss Federal Tribunal pursuant to the Swiss Federal Code on Private International Law. It also describes and compares U.S. courts' review of international sports arbitration awards pursuant to the United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards as well as domestic sports arbitration awards. Both Swiss and U.S. courts are permitting CAS arbitration awards to establish a …


Claim-Suppressing Arbitration: The New Rules, David S. Schwartz Jan 2012

Claim-Suppressing Arbitration: The New Rules, David S. Schwartz

Indiana Law Journal

Binding, pre-dispute arbitration imposed on the weaker party in an adhesion contract—so-called “mandatory arbitration”—should be recognized for what it truly is: claim-suppressing arbitration. Arguments that such arbitration processes promote access to dispute resolution have been refuted and should not continue to be made without credible empirical support. Drafters of such arbitration clauses are motivated to reduce their liability exposure and, in particular, to eliminate class claims against themselves. Furthermore, claim-suppressing arbitration violates two fundamental principles of due process: it allows one party to the dispute to make the disputing rules; and it gives the adjudicative role to a decision maker …


End Of An Error: Replacing Manifest Disregard With A New Framework For Reviewing Arbitration Awards, The, Kenneth R. Davis Jan 2012

End Of An Error: Replacing Manifest Disregard With A New Framework For Reviewing Arbitration Awards, The, Kenneth R. Davis

Cleveland State Law Review

Guided by the purposes of the FAA, its legislative history, and the role of commercial arbitration in modern society, this Article proposes a new framework for the judicial review of arbitration awards. Awards deciding federal statutory rights such as those conferred by securities law and civil rights law should be reviewed for errors of law. As recognized in Wilko and McMahon, federal rights deserve protection, even in arbitration. There is one other type of award that requires judicial correction. Despite the statements in Hall Street and Concepcion that the FAA provides the exclusive grounds for vacatur, the courts must correct …


Advisory Adjudication, Girardeau A. Spann Jan 2012

Advisory Adjudication, Girardeau A. Spann

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Supreme Court decision in Camreta v. Greene is revealing. The Court first issues an opinion authorizing appeals by prevailing parties in qualified immunity cases, even though doing so entails the issuance of an advisory opinion that is not necessary to resolution of the dispute between the parties. And the Court then declines to reach the merits of the underlying constitutional claim in the case, because doing so would entail the issuance of an advisory opinion that was not necessary to the resolution of the dispute between the parties. The Court's decision, therefore, has the paradoxical effect of both honoring …