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Full-Text Articles in Law
The New York Convention: A Self-Executing Treaty, Gary B. Born
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 …
The Influence Of Arbitrator Background And Representation On Arbitration Outcomes, Adam C. Pritchard, Stephen J. Choi, Jill E. Fisch
The Influence Of Arbitrator Background And Representation On Arbitration Outcomes, Adam C. Pritchard, Stephen J. Choi, Jill E. Fisch
Articles
We study the role of arbitrator background in securities arbitration. We find that several aspects of arbitrator background are correlated with arbitration outcomes. Specifically, industry experience, prior experience as a regulator, and status as a professional or retired arbitrator are correlated with statistically significant differences in arbitration awards. The impact of these characteristics is affected by whether the arbitrator in question serves as the panel chair and by whether the parties to the arbitration are represented by counsel. Our findings offer some preliminary insights into the debate over possible arbitrator bias. On the one hand, they suggest that the party …
What The Awards Tell Us About Labor Arbitration Of Employment Discrimination Claims, Ariana R. Levinson
What The Awards Tell Us About Labor Arbitration Of Employment Discrimination Claims, Ariana R. Levinson
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
This Article contributes to the debate over mandatory arbitration of employment-discrimination claims in the unionized sector. In light of the proposed prohibition on union waivers in the Arbitration Fairness Act, this debate has significant practical implications. Fundamentally, the Article is about access to justice. It examines 160 labor arbitration opinions and awards in employment-discrimination cases. The author concludes that labor arbitration is a forum in which employment-discrimination claims can be-and, in some cases, are-successfully resolved. Based upon close examination of the opinions and awards, the Article recommends legislative improvements in certain cases targeting statutes of limitations, compulsory process, remedies, class …
Attorneys As Arbitrators, Adam C. Pritchard, Stephen J. Choi, Jill E. Fisch
Attorneys As Arbitrators, Adam C. Pritchard, Stephen J. Choi, Jill E. Fisch
Articles
We study the role of attorneys as arbitrators in securities arbitration. We find that arbitrators who also represent brokerage firms or brokers in other arbitrations award significantly less compensation to investor-claimants than do other arbitrators. We find no significant effect for attorney-arbitrators who represent investors or both investors and brokerage firms. The relation between representing brokerage firms and arbitration awards remains significant even when we control for political outlook. Arbitrators who donate money to Democratic political candidates award greater compensation than do arbitrators who donate to Republican can-didates. We also study the dynamics of panel interaction. We find that the …
The Sounds Of Silence: Are U.S. Arbitrators Creating Internationally Enforceable Awards When Ordering Class Arbitration In Cases Of Contractual Silence Or Ambiguity?, S. I. Strong
Michigan Journal of International Law
Before outlining the structure of this Article, it is useful to clarify two matters regarding definitions and scope. First, in the context of this Article, an "international class award" is an award resulting from an international class arbitration. There are three different types of international class arbitrations: (1) a class arbitration that includes at least one defendant from a country other than the seat of the arbitration, which means that enforcement of an award will have international implications; (2) a class arbitration that involves defendants that may be based in the arbitral forum but that also hold significant foreign assets …
External Law In Arbitration Hard-Boiled, Soft-Boiled, And Sunny-Side Up, Theodore J. St. Antoine
External Law In Arbitration Hard-Boiled, Soft-Boiled, And Sunny-Side Up, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Book Chapters
Thirty-seven years ago Bernie Meltzer and the late Bob Howlett squared off at our annual meeting in a classic confrontation on an issue that refuses to die. What should an arbitrator do when there is a seemingly irreconcilable conflict between a provision of a collective bargaining agreement and the dictates of external law? Professor Meltzer was the hard-boiled logician. Arbitrators' proper domain is the parties' contract, said he, and we "should respect the agreement and ignore the law" when the two diverge. Howlett took the softer, more accomodating approach. He reasoned that "every agreement incorporates all applicable law" and so …
Arbitration And Judicial Review, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Arbitration And Judicial Review, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Other Publications
A quarter century ago, in a presentation at the Academy's annual meeting, I used the phrase "contract reader" to characterize the role an arbitrator plays in construing a collective bargaining agreement. That two-word phrase may be the only thing I ever said before this body that has been remembered. Unfortunately, it is almost invariably misunderstood. Time and again members have reproached me: "What's the big deal about contract reading, anyway? Isn't it just the same as contract interpretation?" Or, more substantively scathing: "Do you really think, Ted, that all you have to do to interpret a labor agreement is to …
Contract Reading' In Labor Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Contract Reading' In Labor Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
A quarter century ago, I used the phrase "contract reader" to characterize the role an arbitrator plays in construing a collective bargaining agreement. This phrase has almost invariable been misunderstood to refer to reading or interpreting the contract. When I spoke of the "contract reader," it was in the context of judicial review of an award. My point was this: When a court has before it an arbitrator's award applying a collective bargaining agreement, it is as if the employer and the union had signed a stipulation stating: "What the arbitrator says this contract means is exactly what we meant …
Arbitration: Back To The Future, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Arbitration: Back To The Future, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Other Publications
A strong new ideological current is sweeping through much of the Western World. At one extreme it manifests itself as a deep distrust of big government. In more modest form, it is a sense of skepticism or disillusionment about the capacity of big government to deal effectively with the problems confronting our society. In continental Europe today there is much talk of the principle of "subsidiarity," the notion that social and economic ills should be treated at the lowest level feasible, usually the level closest to the people directly affected. In the United States there is much talk of "privatization," …
Afterword To Chicago-Kent Law Review, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Afterword To Chicago-Kent Law Review, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
A unifying theme of this Symposium is as old and enduring as the common law: when and how can a well-established, successful adjudicative institution be adapted to meet the demands of new and substantially different situations? There have been splendid triumphs of transference, such as Lord Mansfield's appropriation of the law merchant in the eighteenth century as a major building block of modem commercial law. There have also been embarrassing failures, like the abortive effort to transport American labor law concepts en masse into the alien British environment of the early 1970s. The common question confronting the participants in this …
Deferral To Arbitration And Use Of External Law In Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Deferral To Arbitration And Use Of External Law In Arbitration, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
proper definition of the appropriate roles of arbitrators, administrative agencies and the courts depends in great part on the notion that, generally speaking, in labor relations, the interpretation and application of contracts is for arbitrators, and the interpretation and application of statutes is for the administrative agencies and the courts. Arbitrators deal primarily with contract rights and administrative agencies, like the NLRB and the courts, deal primarily with statutory rights. If that distinction is maintained, the problems of deferral to arbitration and the use of external law in arbitration can be more easily resolved.
Judicial Review Of Labor Arbitration Awards: A Second Look At Enterprise Wheel And Its Progeny, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Judicial Review Of Labor Arbitration Awards: A Second Look At Enterprise Wheel And Its Progeny, Theodore J. St. Antoine
Articles
Logic, so the cliche goes, is not the life of the law. But logic is very much like the DNA of the law-the structural principle without which all is sprawl and muddle. In the last ten years a controversy has raged over the role of the labor arbitrator in issuing awards, and the role of the courts in reviewing and enforcing those awards. This controversy has largely taken the form of a continuing debate among scholars and practicing arbitrators at the annual meetings of the National Academy of Arbitrators. With due respect to the thoughtful and experienced persons who have …