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Empirically Evaluating Claims About Investment Treaty Arbitration, Susan Franck Dec 2007

Empirically Evaluating Claims About Investment Treaty Arbitration, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

With the blossoming of empirical legal scholarship, there is an increased appreciation for the insights it offers issues of international importance. One area that can benefit from such inquiry is the resolution of disputes from investment treaties, which affects international relations, implicates international legality of domestic government conduct, and puts millions of taxpayer dollars at risk. While suggesting there has been a "litigation explosion", commentators make untested assertions about investment treaty disputes. Little empirical work transparently explores this area, however. As the first research that explains its methodology and results, this article is a modest attempt to evaluate claims about …


Process Purity And Innovation In Dispute Resolution: A Response To Professors Stempel, Cole, And Drahozal, Richard C. Reuben Oct 2007

Process Purity And Innovation In Dispute Resolution: A Response To Professors Stempel, Cole, And Drahozal, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

This article uses a "process characteristics and values" approach to make the case against displacing arbitration finality with substantive judicial review. It responds to a trio of articles in a forthcoming Nevada Law Review symposium on whether and how the Federal Arbitration Act should be amended. In one article, Nevada Law Professor Jeffrey Stempel contends all arbitration awards should be subject to substantive judicial review similar to that of public trial courts. In a second article, Ohio State Professor Sarah Cole argues that substantive review should generally be permitted when the parties agree to it by contract, an issue now …


The Arrival Of The "Have-Nots" In International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers Oct 2007

The Arrival Of The "Have-Nots" In International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Consideration Of 'Contracting Culture' In Enforcing Arbitration Provisions, Amy J. Schmitz Oct 2007

Consideration Of 'Contracting Culture' In Enforcing Arbitration Provisions, Amy J. Schmitz

Faculty Publications

The Federal Arbitration Act mandates strict and uniform enforcement of standardized pre-dispute arbitration provisions. This may not be proper, however, in light of the importance of context with respect to these provisions. This Article therefore seeks to remind courts of the importance of exchange context by proposing a "contracting culture" continuum for enforcing these arbitration provisions that acknowledges the impacts of these provisions in a particular communal context. "Contracting culture" encompasses economic and non-economic relational factors that impact dispute resolution agreements, but go beyond common conceptions of "culture" focused on ethnicity, nationality, or religion. It also explores beyond the primary …


The Arbitration Penumbra: Arbitration Law And The Rapidly Changing Landscape Of Dispute Resolution, Thomas J. Stipanowich Oct 2007

The Arbitration Penumbra: Arbitration Law And The Rapidly Changing Landscape Of Dispute Resolution, Thomas J. Stipanowich

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Is Open Source Software The New Lex Mercatoria?, Fabrizio Marrella, Christopher S. Yoo Aug 2007

Is Open Source Software The New Lex Mercatoria?, Fabrizio Marrella, Christopher S. Yoo

All Faculty Scholarship

Early Internet scholars proclaimed that the transnational nature of the Internet rendered it inherently unregulable by conventional governments. Instead, the Internet would be governed by customs and practices established by the end user community in a manner reminiscent of the lex mercatoria, which spontaneously emerged during medieval times to resolve international trade disputes independently and autonomously from national law. Subsequent events have revealed these claims to have been overly optimistic, as national governments have evinced both the inclination and the ability to exert influence, if not outright control, over the physical infrastructure, the domain name system, and the content flowing …


Dangers Of Deference To Form Arbitration Provisions, Amy J. Schmitz Jul 2007

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 …


Arbitration By Accident: The Consequence Of Unintentionally Meeting The Clear And Unmistakable Evidence Standard, Mark A. Mulchek Jul 2007

Arbitration By Accident: The Consequence Of Unintentionally Meeting The Clear And Unmistakable Evidence Standard, Mark A. Mulchek

Journal of Dispute Resolution

A fundamental principle of arbitration law is that parties may only be compelled to submit an issue to arbitration if they agreed to do so. The question of when an arbitrator, instead of a district court, can decide the arbitrability of an issue has been taken up by the courts in recent years. In First Options of Chicago, Inc. v. Kaplan, the Supreme Court stated that an arbitrator may decide questions of arbitrability only when the parties have "clearly and unmistakably" agreed to defer such questions to an arbitrator. Since First Options, the lower courts have attempted to define when …


Only The Rich Can Afford A Remedy: The Unconscionable Enforcement Of Arbitration Provisions Against The Indigent, Ryan M. Turley Jul 2007

Only The Rich Can Afford A Remedy: The Unconscionable Enforcement Of Arbitration Provisions Against The Indigent, Ryan M. Turley

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Overstreet v. Contigroup Cos., Inc.,2 the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals held that neither economic disadvantage nor undisclosed arbitration fees may form the basis for striking down an arbitration provision on the grounds of unconscionability.3 While the Supreme Court and the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) expressly authorize the use of the doctrine of unconscionability to invalidate arbitration provisions, courts are sharply divided on its proper application. 4 The difficult juxtaposition of the Supreme Court's interpretation of the FAA as a "liberal federal policy favoring arbitration" and the traditional application of unconscionability as a means of policing unfair contracts has …


Application Of Due Process To Arbitration Awards Of Punitive Damages - Where Is The State Action, The, Charles Smith Jul 2007

Application Of Due Process To Arbitration Awards Of Punitive Damages - Where Is The State Action, The, Charles Smith

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article will analyze why the position of the courts-no state action-is correct. Specifically, this article will take the position that the policy of finality traditionally found in arbitration law must trump any constitutional inquiries. This is because arbitration is ultimately based on the parties' agreement, which inevitably recites that the arbitrator's decision shall be final and, in any event, this finality is generally implied.


Arbitration In Argentina - The Judicial Court’S Review On The Arbitration Awards, Felipe Eduardo Zabalza, Leandro Javier Caputo Jun 2007

Arbitration In Argentina - The Judicial Court’S Review On The Arbitration Awards, Felipe Eduardo Zabalza, Leandro Javier Caputo

Felipe Eduardo Zabalza

The nullity recourse against an arbitration award is not aimed at challenging alleged errors in iudicandum, nor is it possible to use it to obtain elliptically a judicial revision of an adverse award, since that would imply the degeneration of arbitration, depriving it of one of its most precious benefits.

A decision in re Decathlon España S.A. vs. Bertone, Luis, handed down by the National Court of Appeals on Commercial Matters, Chamber D, stated that “the higher or lesser amount of said control depends on the same will which gave rise to arbitration: it will be of a maximum extension …


Vacatur Of Arbitration Awards: The Poor Loser Problem Or Loser Pays?, Stanley A. Leasure Apr 2007

Vacatur Of Arbitration Awards: The Poor Loser Problem Or Loser Pays?, Stanley A. Leasure

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

In B. L. Harbert International, LLC. v. Hercules Steel Co., decided in February 2006, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals took the opportunity to express its "exasperation" with the growing tendency of losing parties in arbitration disputes to take a "never-say-die attitude" in the pursuit of vacatur of arbitral decisions "without any real legal basis for doing so" and its concern for the concomitant threat to the underlying purposes of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA).

Applying the Harbert "any real legal basis" requirement raises several concerns that can be assuaged only by courts' commitment to focus on balancing following two …


Misjudging: Implications For Dispute Resolution, Donna Shestowsky Mar 2007

Misjudging: Implications For Dispute Resolution, Donna Shestowsky

Nevada Law Journal

No abstract provided.


Equitable Estoppel And The Compulsion Of Arbitration, Alexandra A. Hui Mar 2007

Equitable Estoppel And The Compulsion Of Arbitration, Alexandra A. Hui

Vanderbilt Law Review

Freedom of contract is a longstanding principle deeply rooted in American jurisprudence, protected by the Contract Clause and by the Due Process Clauses of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments.' Because of the legal system's high regard for freedom of contract, parties are free to negotiate virtually all issues, thus creating rights and limiting duties and obligations to one another.

In exercising this freedom to contract, parties often negotiate an arbitration clause. These clauses, also referred to as "predispute arbitration agreements," are contractual provisions agreed to in advance of any dispute that require a party to submit any and all future …


El Desarrollo Del Arbitraje Comercial Internacional: Sofisticacion O Complejdad, Horacio A. Grigera Naón Jan 2007

El Desarrollo Del Arbitraje Comercial Internacional: Sofisticacion O Complejdad, Horacio A. Grigera Naón

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

No abstract provided.


Mcmahon Turns Twenty: The Regulation Of Fairness In Securities Arbitration, Jill I. Gross Jan 2007

Mcmahon Turns Twenty: The Regulation Of Fairness In Securities Arbitration, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

I believe that current regulation of securities arbitration does ensure that it is fair to investors. Part II of this Commentary explores the various sources of law, including the FAA, which could require fairness in securities arbitration. It revisits the first critical assumption of the McMahon Court, that the FAA's provisions for post-award judicial review protect investors from an unfair arbitration process. This Part demonstrates that, while the FAA does require “fundamental fairness” in arbitration, courts loosely construe that requirement and find most arbitration proceedings meet it easily. Part IIII of this Commentary explores SEC oversight of securities arbitration, particularly …


The Arrival Of The "Have-Nots" In International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers Jan 2007

The Arrival Of The "Have-Nots" In International Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

Much has been written about the have-nots in domestic litigation and domestic arbitration, with an apparent assumption that their fate was mainly a domestic affair. In recent years, however, internet commerce has brought consumers to the international market, an increasingly globalized workforce has generated a class of international employees, and the link between international trade and human rights has revealed a host of victims. The arrival of these 'have-nots' in international arbitration means that previously latent questions about international arbitration's integrity as a system and role as a mechanism for transnational regulatory governance have been brought to the fore.

Using …


An Empirical Analysis Of Investment Treaty Awards, Susan Franck Jan 2007

An Empirical Analysis Of Investment Treaty Awards, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

I. INTRODUCTION

Earlier speakers offered insights about investment law and its implications for the future of domestic administrative law and international law. To bring us full circle, I will discuss where we are today so that we can consider where we want development law to be tomorrow. In pursuit of that goal, I offer empirical data related to investment treaty arbitration. My goal today is to focus on three claims about investment treaty arbitration and consider the data's potential implications.


Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Treaty Arbitration, And The Rule Of Law, Susan Franck Jan 2007

Foreign Direct Investment, Investment Treaty Arbitration, And The Rule Of Law, Susan Franck

Articles in Law Reviews & Other Academic Journals

In the last decade, there has been a surge in the number of multi-lateral and bilateral investment treaties governments have signed; meanwhile there have been dramatic increases in the amount of foreign direct investment (FDI); and, more recently, the number of claims brought under investment treaties has spiked. This Article examines the relationship amongst these factors and is the first to review the emerging empirical economic literature investigating whether investment treaties achieve their goal of promoting FDI. The Article then specifically evaluates the impact that the procedural right to arbitrate investment claims plays in the process of promoting FDI and …


Does International Arbitration Need A Mandatory Rules Method?, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt Jan 2007

Does International Arbitration Need A Mandatory Rules Method?, Alexander K.A. Greenawalt

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

The role of mandatory rules in international arbitration remains a persistent source of debate. The basic problem is a straightforward one: contractual arbitration arises as a matter of the parties’ consent, but the resolution of contractual disputes can implicate mandatory rules of law that are not waivable and are typically designed to protect broader public rights. The literature has often presented the issue in terms of conflict between the authority of the state and the party-derived authority of the arbitrator. Asserting an independent public duty to protect national mandatory laws as well as the enforceability of arbitral awards, some writers …


Keeping Arbitrations From Becoming Kangaroo Courts, Jeffrey W. Stempel Jan 2007

Keeping Arbitrations From Becoming Kangaroo Courts, Jeffrey W. Stempel

Scholarly Works

Arbitration has grown rapidly during the past 20 years. Particularly notable and problematic is the rapid onset of new or mass arbitration that has resulted from the judiciary's modern favorable attitude toward enforcement of arbitration clauses, even those imposed upon consumers, employees, small vendors, and debtors as part of a standardized contract of adhesion. In a separate article (See "Mandating Minimum Quality in Mass Arbitration," 76 U. Cin. L. Rev. (forthcoming 2007)), I present a more comprehensive list of what I regard as the necessary steps that must be taken to insure minimally acceptable quality and fairness in mass arbitration. …


In Defense Of Mandatory Arbitration (If Imposed On The Company), Jean R. Sternlight Jan 2007

In Defense Of Mandatory Arbitration (If Imposed On The Company), Jean R. Sternlight

Scholarly Works

Having spent much of her academic life battling companies' mandatory imposition of binding arbitration on consumers and employees, the author now switches gears. This Article contemplates whether mandatory binding arbitration is acceptable if imposed by the government on companies (governmental mandatory arbitration) rather than by companies on their employees and consumers (private mandatory arbitration). Specifically, the Article considers the possibility of statutes that would provide little guys (consumers and employees) with an opportunity to take their disputes to binding arbitration rather than litigation. If the little guys chose arbitration over litigation, post-dispute, companies would have to agree to such arbitration, …


Parallel Courts In Post-Conflict Kosovo, Elena Baylis Jan 2007

Parallel Courts In Post-Conflict Kosovo, Elena Baylis

Articles

Even as American attention is focused on Iraq's struggle to rebuild its political and legal systems in the face of violent sectarian divisions, another fractured society - Kosovo - has begun negotiations to resolve the question of its political independence. Kosovo's efforts to establish multi-ethnic rule of law in the context of persistent ethnic divisions offer lessons in transitional justice and in managing legal pluralism for Iraq and other states.

In Kosovo today, two parallel judicial systems each claim sole jurisdiction over the province. One system was established by the United Nations administration in Kosovo, while the other system is …


Faa And The Userra: Pro-Arbitration Policies Can Undermine Federal Protection Of Military Personnel, Laura Bettenhausen Jan 2007

Faa And The Userra: Pro-Arbitration Policies Can Undermine Federal Protection Of Military Personnel, Laura Bettenhausen

Journal of Dispute Resolution

According to the United States Supreme Court, statutory claims may be the subject of an arbitration agreement contained in an individual employment contract. In Garrett v. Circuit City Stores, Inc., the United States Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit analyzed whether claims brought under the Uniformed Services Employment and Reemployment Rights Act (USERRA) are subject to arbitration under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). The applicability of the FAA to employment contracts is an integral part of the analysis in this case. To determine whether arbitration is an appropriate forum for the plaintiff's claim, discussion of both the structure and …


Resisting Equal Footing: Did The Wisconsin Supreme Court Disguise An Assault On Arbitration, Peter Wilder Jan 2007

Resisting Equal Footing: Did The Wisconsin Supreme Court Disguise An Assault On Arbitration, Peter Wilder

Journal of Dispute Resolution

It is well settled that state courts may apply state contract principles when determining if an arbitration clause is enforceable; however, states are prohibited from enforcing laws that treat arbitration agreements differently than other contracts. Placing arbitration agreements on an equal footing with other contracts results from judicial preference for arbitration. When a court overreaches to find an arbitration agreement to be procedurally and substantively unconscionable, the overreaching may stem from the court's erroneous preference for adjudication over arbitration. The issue becomes more apparent when the court had the option to enforce the agreement without the unconscionable provision, yet chose …


The Secret To Success: An Examination Of New York State Mediation Related Litigation, Andrew N. Weisberg Jan 2007

The Secret To Success: An Examination Of New York State Mediation Related Litigation, Andrew N. Weisberg

Fordham Urban Law Journal

This Comment examines the difficulties in using alternative dispute resolution, specifically mediation, to settle disputes between parties. While mediation is meant to lighten the courts' caseload, it occasionally results in post-settlement issues concerning the mediated agreement, leaving the court to determine whether the agreement should be enforced. This Comment examines such enforcement issues, specifically how often enforcement issues arise and the typical grounds on which parties rely to vacate or modify mediated agreements. It discusses the research conducted on New York State cases decided between 1/1/2004 and 10/31/2006 and describes research conducted by Hamline University School of Law Professors James …