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Can The United States Be A Party To Binding Arbitration - The Constitutional Issues Re-Evaluated - Tenaska Washington Partners Ii V. The United States, Chatman Catherine

Journal of Dispute Resolution

It has long been assumed that the Constitution prohibited the United States government from entering binding arbitration as a party. The Department of Justice recently re-examined the issue and concluded that there is no absolute constitutional bar to government participation in binding arbitration.' Tenaska is the first reported court decision to adopt the Department of Justice's new reasoning. The court in Tenaska Washington Partners II v. The United States held that a dispute between a private party and a governmental agency must be submitted to binding arbitration when the parties' voluntary agreement contains an arbitration clause.'