Law Commons^™

Book Review: Challenges And Recusals Of Judges And Arbitrators In International Courts And Tribunals, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

The proliferation of international courts and tribunals over the last few decades has made it increasingly important to ensure that such proceedings are entirely above reproach. In particular, questions have arisen about what should be done in cases where a judge’s or arbitrator’s continued presence threatens the legitimacy of the proceedings. As fundamental as this question is, very little has been written about the standards for challenge and removal of such officials. Fortunately, Challenges and Recusals of Judges and Arbitrators in International Courts and Tribunals, a new collection of essays edited by Chiara Giorgetti, Associate Professor of Law at the …

Introducing The 'New Handshake' To Expand Remedies And Revive Responsibility In Ecommerce, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

There was a time when individuals would meet in person to make purchases and do deals. They would discuss the terms, assess the trustworthiness and character of their contracting partners, and conclude the deal with a handshake. The handshake helped ensure the enforcement of the deal without need for the rule of law or legal power. That handshake was one’s bond — it was a personal trust mark. With the emergence of eCommerce, however, that handshake has nearly disappeared along with the sense of responsibility it inspired. Accordingly, this article discusses how this has impacted consumers’ access to remedies regarding …

Taking Advantage Of Opportunities In Litigotiation, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article is partially based on a study in which I interviewed respected lawyers about their negotiation processes in pretrial litigation. I asked these lawyers about their negotiation procedures generally, and I asked them to describe the last case they settled, starting with the first interaction with their clients in the matter. Although this article focuses on negotiation in the litigation context, some lawyers presumably use analogous procedures in transactional matters.

Good Pretrial Lawyering: Planning To Get To Yes Sooner, Cheaper, And Better, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Although the ostensible purpose for pretrial litigation is to prepare for trial, such preparation is inextricably intertwined with negotiation because the expected trial outcome is a major factor affecting negotiation. Indeed, since most litigated cases are settled, good litigators prepare for negotiation at least as much as trial. The lawyers interviewed for this article, who were selected because of their good reputations, described how they prepare for both possibilities. They recommend taking charge of their cases from the outset, which includes getting a clear understanding of clients and their interests, developing good relationships with counterpart lawyers, carefully investigating the cases, …

Ensuring Remedies To Cure Cramming, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

The unauthorized addition of third party charges to telecommunications bills ("cramming") is a growing problem that has caught the attention of federal regulators and state attorney generals. This Article therefore discusses the problems associated with cramming, and highlights consumers’ uphill battles in seeking remedies with respect to cramming claims. Indeed, it is imperative for policymakers, researchers, consumer advocates, and industry groups to collaborate in developing means for resolving these claims. Accordingly, this Article offers a proposal for resolving cramming disputes in order to advance this collaboration, and inspire development of a functioning online dispute resolution ("ODR") process to handle these …

American Exceptionalism In Consumer Arbitration, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

“American exceptionalism” has been used to reference the United States’ outlier policies in various contexts, including its love for litigation. Despite Americans’ reverence for their “day in court,” their zest for contractual freedom and efficiency has prevailed to result in U.S. courts’ strict enforcement of arbitration provisions in both business-to-business (“B2B”) and business-to-consumer (“B2C”) contracts. This is exceptional because although most of the world joins the United States in generally enforcing B2B arbitration under the New York Convention, many other countries refuse or strictly limit arbitration enforcement in B2C relationships due to concerns regarding power imbalances and public enforcement of …

Empowering Settlors: How Proper Language Can Increase The Enforceability Of A Mandatory Arbitration Provision In A Trust, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

With hostile trust litigation reaching epidemic proportions, many people within the trust industry are interested in identifying new and less expensive ways to resolve trust-related disputes. Arbitration is often proposed as a possible alternative, although questions exist about whether and to what extent a mandatory arbitration provision found in a trust will be considered enforceable by a court. Up until now, most commentary in this area of law has focused on purely jurisprudential issues, with little attention being paid to the practical efforts that settlors can make to increase the enforceability of arbitration provisions found in trusts. This Article takes …

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

Faculty Publications

This article provides just that sort of guide, outlining the various ways in which U.S. federal courts can become involved in international commercial arbitration and introducing both basic and advanced concepts in a straightforward, practical manner. However, this article provides more than just an overview. Instead, it discusses relevant issues on a motion-by-motion basis, helping readers find immediate answers to their questions while also getting a picture of the field as a whole. Written especially for busy lawyers, this article gives practitioners, arbitrators and new and infrequent participants in international commercial arbitration a concise but comprehensive understanding of the unique …

Arbitration Of Trust Disputes: Two Bodies Of Law Collide, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

This article considers the various issues that arise when two separate bodies of law – trust law and arbitration law – collide, using recent developments in the field of international commercial arbitration to address some of the more intransigent problems facing trust arbitration. The article focuses on five areas of concern: the potential for impermissible ouster of the courts, the operability and effectiveness of the arbitration provision, the extent to which the arbitration provision is binding on the party against whom arbitration is asserted, proper representation of parties and arbitrability. In so doing, this article introduces a number of new …

Mandatory Arbitration Of Internal Trust Disputes: Improving Arbitrability And Enforceability Through Proper Procedural Choices, S. I. Strong

Faculty Publications

Trusts and their civil law equivalents, often known as foundations or associations, play a large and increasing role in the global economy, holding trillions of dollars worth of assets and generating billions of dollars worth of revenue and trustees’ fees annually. Once considered nothing more than “mere” estate planning devices, trusts are now more often seen in commercial rather than in private contexts, and often feature sophisticated financial institutions as professional trustees. With favorable tax laws in various off-shore jurisdictions making international trusts increasingly popular and hostile trust litigation reaching epidemic proportions, arbitration would seem to be many parties’ dispute …

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

Faculty Publications

This essay considers the tension between the autonomous theory of international commercial arbitration and the more interactive theory advanced by Gary Born during his keynote address at the recent “Border Skirmishes” symposium at the University of Missouri School of Law. In his presentation, Born considered the relationship between litigation and international commercial arbitration and distinguished between permissible “border crossings” and impermissible “border incursions.” This essay considers how these concepts play out both in routine interactions between courts and tribunals and more in difficult scenarios, such as those involving anti-suit injunctions. The discussion also presents statistics concerning the amount of ancillary …

Public Civil Discourse: A New Domain For Dispute Resolution, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

We in dispute resolution can view civil discourse about public issues - a direct, deliberative way of exercising democracy itself - as a new but related field in which we can apply our skills and services, and this theme edition of Dispute Resolution Magazine is intended to help those of us in dispute resolution cross the isthmus into what for many of us is the new world of civil discourse.

Arbitration Ambush In A Policy Polemic, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

Arbitration has been demonized in the media and consumer protection debates, often without empirical support or consideration of its attributes. This has led to renewed efforts to pass the Arbitration Fairness Action, which would bar enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in consumer, employment, and civil rights contexts. It also inspired Dodd-Frank’s preclusion of arbitration clauses in mortgage contracts, along with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s charge to prohibit or limit enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration agreements in consumer financial products and services contracts. Some of this negativity toward arbitration is warranted, especially in the wake of the United Supreme Court’s recent …

Adr And The Rule Of Law: Making The Connection, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

In this article, I will address important definitional questions and try to articulate why it is important for practitioners, program managers, scholars, judges, and others involved in ADR to engage questions about the relationship between ADR and the rule of law.

The Potential Contribution Of Adr To An Integrated Curriculum: Preparing Law Students For Real World Lawyering, John M. Lande, Jean R. Sternlight

Faculty Publications

This Article briefly reviews the long history of critiques of legal education that highlight the failure to adequately prepare students for what they will and should do as attorneys. It takes a sober look at the hurdles reformers face when trying to make significant curricular changes and proposes a modest menu of reforms that interested faculty and law schools can largely achieve without investing substantial additional resources.This Article emphasizes the special contributions that alternative dispute resolution (ADR) can provide to legal education more generally. ADR instruction is an important corrective to a curriculum that routinely conveys the erroneous implication that …

Confronting Adr Agreements' Contract/No-Contract Conundrum With Good Faith, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

This Article explores the intricate problem, or conundrum, of enforcing "Alternative Dispute Resolution ('ADR') agreements" that require mediation or other non-binding dispute resolution procedures. Although public policy supports ADR, courts' inadequate analysis of ADR agreements is threatening their vitality. Instead of properly considering the flexible nature of these agreements, courts assume formalist contract or no-contract conclusions similar to those they impose on what Professor Charles Knapp has termed "contracts to bargain." ADR agreements and other contracts to bargain pose enforcement problems because they require parties' cooperation without specifying what cooperation means or how to enforce such flexible duties. This Article …

The Movement Toward Early Case Handling In Courts And Private Dispute Resolution, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

This article identifies early case handling (ECH) as an important general phenomenon in dispute system design theory and practice, catalogs the major ECH processes, and urges practitioners and policymakers to encourage use of and experimentation with ECH processes when appropriate.The key element of ECH is that people intentionally exercise responsibility for handling the case from the outset. ECH processes in courts include early case management procedures, differentiated case management systems, early neutral evaluation, and other early alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes. ECH in the private sector includes ADR pledges and contract clauses, early case assessment and ADR screening protocols, settlement …

Dangers Of Deference To Form Arbitration Provisions, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

This Article is part of my larger project exploring what I call "contracting culture," which borrows from legal realism and relational contract theory by considering contextual factors such as negotiators' relations, understandings, and values. As part of this project, I am pursuing various threads, including empirical studies of how contracting realities impact arbitration. In this Article, however, I focus on how these realities in business to consumer contracts combine with the Federal Arbitration Act and formulaic contract law to foster dangerous deference to form arbitration provisions. The Article then invites procedural reforms and offers suggestions for regulations aimed to temper …

Several Initiatives On Media And Conflict Under Way, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Both in Arizona and in other jurisdictions, both in longstanding and newly implemented programs, both currently and more than a decade ago, court-connected arbitration does not appear to reduce, but also does not substantially improve, the effectiveness and efficiency of dispute resolution. It does, however, seem to increase litigants' access to a hearing. How aspects of program structure could enhance arbitration's performance warrants further study.

Tort Reform Renews Debate Over Mandatory Mediation, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Despite the rise of the Democrats during the midterm elections, tort reform can be expected to continue to be an important topic at both the state and federal levels. This is significant for dispute resolution, because a number of the reform measures being discussed include mandatory mediation requirements for many, if not most, civil cases.

The Vanishing Trial Report, John M. Lande

Faculty Publications

Some in the alternative dispute resolution community are afraid that ADR will be blamed for the apparent disappearance of trials. A close look at the data, however, suggests that changing patterns of litigation are not necessarily bad and that the growth of ADR is probably as much a result of these changes as a cause of them.

Book Review: Bennett Explains Arbitration Fundamentals, Without The Legalese, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

At the outset of the book, Steven Bennett expresses "fervent hope that this book will be of use to lawyers, law students and business people interested in learning the fundamentals of arbitration law." The book therefore focuses on fundamental, or basic, arbitration concepts and norms. It does not purport to provide in-depth discussion and analysis of arbitration law, but instead serves as a shelf reference or primer that promises to achieve Bennett's goal.

Ashcroft Sends Signal Of Support For Adr In Justice Dept., Richard C. Reuben, Kevin R. Kemper

Faculty Publications

In his first public comments on the issue, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft signaled his support for the Justice Department's longstanding commitment to the use of alternative dispute resolution options.

Ending A Mud Bowl: Defining Arbitration’S Finality Through Functional Analysis, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) and Uniform Arbitration Act (UAA), on the state level, prescribe a nearly identical procedural and remedial scheme for promoting independent, self-contained arbitration. To that end, both acts curtail courts' review of arbitration awards, by limiting the grounds for vacating awards to those aimed at ensuring only basic procedural fairness. Nonetheless, seemingly "pro-arbitration" impulses have driven some courts' eager application, or misapplication, of the FAA/UAA statutory scheme to enforce dispute resolution agreements that reject the acts' limited review prescriptions. This Article tackles this arguable abuse of the FAA/UAA scheme, by proposing a functional analysis for defining …

The Right Mix, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

This edition of Dispute Resolution Magazine explores several aspects of the problem. It begins with a debate between Jean Sternlight and Theodore 0. Rogers over the propriety of mandatory predispute arbitration processes in the consumer and employment contexts, followed by a proposal by Terry Trantina for a "constructive compromise" regarding the general validity of arbitration agreements in contracts of adhesion.

This trio of essays is followed by articles on two major arbitration reform efforts. The first, by Thomas J. Stipanowich and J. Clark Kelso, discusses the rise of protocols and other industry standards intended to bring fairness to the arbitratica …

Perspective On The Rand Report: The Dialogue Continues, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

This issue of Dispute Resolution Magazine focuses on the RAND Report, offering a wide variety of perspectives on the study and its significance. It begins with RAND's own summary of its methodology, findings, and preliminary conclusions.

The Lawyer Turns Peacemaker, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

No doubt millions of people and businesses have benefited from simpler, less stressful modes of dispute resolution. Moreover, ADR is primed for much greater growth, as witnessed by the breathtaking expansion of court-related programs, the rush of lawyers and nonlawyers alike to mediation training seminars, and the pledge of thousands of businesses and large law firms to consider ADR options. But the child born of necessity is still, at best, teetering between adolescence and adulthood. For all of its potential to reshape the ways problems are solved, it still shows a dark side-coercion, conflicts, competency issues and commercialism -that leaves …