Law Commons^™

The Uncertain Status Of The Manifest Disregard Standard One Decade After Hall Street, Stuart M. Boyarsky

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) enables parties to obtain quick and final resolution to disputes without incurring the costs, delays, and occasional publicity of litigation. Indeed, section 10 of the FAA enumerates four specific grounds on which courts may vacate arbitral awards: corruption, fraud, impartiality, and misconduct or incompetence. Yet over the past 60 years, a debate has raged over the existence of an additional ground: the arbitrator’s manifest disregard of the law.

The Supreme Court first enounced this standard in dicta in its 1953 decision in Wilko v. Swan. Over next four decades, every federal circuit court slowly …

The New York Convention: A Self-Executing Treaty, Gary B. Born

Michigan Journal of International Law

The thesis of this Article is that uncertainty regarding the Convention’s status as a self-executing treaty of the United States is unwarranted and unfortunate. Instead, both the Convention’s provisions for recognition and enforcement of arbitration agreements (in Article II) and of arbitral awards (in Articles III, IV, V, and VI) should be regarded as self-executing and directly applicable in U.S. (and other national) courts. As discussed in detail below, this is because Article II establishes mandatory, complete, and comprehensive substantive rules, directed specifically to national courts, for the recognition and enforcement of international arbitration agreements. Likewise, the history and purposes …

Protecting Against Protectionism: Commisa V. Pemex, Victoria Aynne Barker

Georgia Journal of International & Comparative Law

No abstract provided.

A Global Treaty Override? The New Oecd Multilateral Tax Instrument And Its Limits, Reuven S. Avi-Yonah, Haiyan Xu

Michigan Journal of International Law

This article will proceed as follows. Section 2 summarizes the main provisions of the MLI. Section 3 discusses the purpose of tax treaties in the twenty-first century, because it can be argued that they are less necessary under conditions of tax competition. Section 4 raises the question whether tax treaties can be improved short of a full-fledged multilateral tax treaty by inserting a most favored nation (MFN) provision similar to those found in bilateral investment treaties. Such an MFN provision operates over time to create a de facto multilateral treaty without the negotiation of one. Section 5 concludes this article.

Consumer Arbitrations In The European Union, Andreas Von Goldbeck

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The main argument of this paper is that the law should generally enforce pre-dispute consumer arbitration clauses. If the consumer is given a choice between litigation and arbitration at the time of contracting and she chooses arbitration, that choice should generally be enforceable, provided appropriate safeguards are in place guaranteeing access to justice. Consumer protection comes at a cost, which the consumer ultimately pays in the price of the product or service purchased: assuming arbitration is the more cost-efficient dispute-resolution mechanism, consumers choosing arbitration would, in theory, pay a lower price than those choosing litigation. The blanket hostility towards pre-dispute …

Arbitration. A Promising Avenue For Resolving Family Law Cases?, Audrey J. Beeson

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This paper will examine the path of arbitration in the area of family law, when it began, and how it has grown since 1990. It will discuss the division between the states that currently utilize arbitration for family law issues as well as the scope of judicial review. The paper will then discuss the history leading to, and the enactment of, the Uniform Family Law Arbitration Act. Next, it addresses Nevada’s legislative history, when arbitration of family law matters was considered, and consequently what a Nevada Family Law Arbitration Act would potentially look like. Finally, it will include a view …

Clear Statement Rules And The Integrity Of Labor Arbitration, Stephen Ross, Roy Eisenhardt

Arbitration Law Review

Under the common law, employment contracts are submitted to civil courts to resolve disputes over interpretation, breach, and remedies. As an alternative, parties in collective bargaining agreements, can agree to dispute resolution by an independent arbitrator, whose decision is reviewed deferentially by judges. Where employees or members of an association are governed by its internal rules, in contrast, they often agree contractually to submit internal disputes to an association officer or committee. In this circumstance, the common law governing private associations affords judicial review that is more limited than a civil dispute, but more searching than is the case for …

Class Dismissed: Compelling A Look At Jurisprudence Surrounding Class Arbitration And Proposing Solutions To Asymmetric Bargaining Power Between Parties, Matthew R. Hamielec

Chicago-Kent Law Review

Class actions and arbitrations have existed since the United States’ inception. Since the mid-twentieth century, both Congress and the U.S. Supreme Court have helped arbitration blossom from litigation’s overshadowed alternative to a prominent means of resolving disputes. Soon, the commercial industry proceeded to incorporate arbitration provisions in their consumer and employment contracts. That way, when a dispute arose between the business and a person, the business would arbitrate with claimants individually. Plaintiffs’ attorneys who favored collective action proceedings like class actions, however, pushed for courts’ allowance of class arbitration—a class proceeding conducted within an arbitration’s confines.

Corporations litigated such class …

Amending Maine's Plain Language Law To Ensure Complete Disclosure To Consumers Signing Arbitration Contracts, Andrew R. Sarapas

Maine Law Review

Arbitration has been defined as an informal procedure used by disputants to resolve their differences in a forum other than a court of law. By agreeing to arbitration, the parties submit their disputes to selected arbitrators, whose reasoning and final decisions or awards supplant the judgment of the established judicial tribunals. Further, the decisions of arbitrators are usually binding and enforceable in courts. Although arbitration has been lauded for being less expensive and time-consuming than litigation, consumers arbitrating disputes with large companies may not be playing on a level field. It is important, however, to distinguish arbitration from mediation. Arbitrators, …

The Possibility Of Using Alternative Dispute Resolution For Election Law Disputes, Jessica Becerra

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article looks at the positive effects that ADR can have in resolving election law disputes before, during, and after elections. First, this article will focus on the significance of implementing ADR processes in resolving election law disputes. Next, this article will explain the background and impact that election law disputes have on voters, candidates, and the election process as a whole. This article will then explore why ADR processes should be implemented as opposed to using litigation to resolve election law disputes. After, this article will explain a proposed solution to resolving election law disputes through mediation or arbitration …

The Path Towards Defining “Investment” In Icsid Investor-State Arbitrations: The Open-Ended Approach, Melissa María Valdez García

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Article 25 of the International Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes left the notion of “investment” intentionally undefined, thus leaving its interpretation in the hands of arbitration tribunals, which has led to inconsistencies, confusion and debate regarding the true essence of what may appear as a routine concept. This article tries to explain that the proper meaning of “investment” under the Convention must be clarified not only by discussing the drafting history of the Convention, but by also examining doctrinal tendencies, key aspects of corresponding arbitration awards and customary international law and argues that arbitration tribunals should show strong …

Arbitration And Protection Under The Un Convention Against Torture And Other Cruel, Inhuman, Degrading Treatment, Or Punishment, Nicole M. Hogan

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article will discuss the UN Convention Against Torture, and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (“Convention”), and how arbitration can be used to best serve victims who were subjected to treatment that is prohibited under the Convention. Part II will give a background on the Convention. Part III will introduce the arbitration provision that is included in Article 30 of the Convention, which is important to the foundation of this article. Additionally, this section will discuss how arbitration works as an Alternative Dispute Resolution procedure, and will highlight some of the benefits of arbitration over litigation. Part …

Bekele V. Lyft, Inc., Anne Maly

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.