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You Can't Have Your Trust And Defeat It Too: Why Mandatory Arbitration Provisions In Trusts Are Enforceable, And Why State Courts Are Getting It Wrong, Rachel M. Hirshberg Jan 2013

You Can't Have Your Trust And Defeat It Too: Why Mandatory Arbitration Provisions In Trusts Are Enforceable, And Why State Courts Are Getting It Wrong, Rachel M. Hirshberg

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This note addresses a recent decision by the Texas State Court of Appeals concerning the enforceability of mandatory arbitration provisions found in testamentary instruments, and specifically, inter vivos trusts. After analyzing the legal background of arbitration, the use of contract principles to analyze both arbitration and trust agreements, and statutory enactments making trust arbitration provisions enforceable, this note will discuss the nuanced relationship between contract principles of construction, arbitration agreements, and trust instruments, and specifically the relationship between trust agreements and contracts. In analyzing these relationships, this note will also address the differences between the statute at issue in Rachal …


Bit Unfair: An Illustration Of The Backlash Against International Arbitration In Latin America, A, David Ma Jul 2012

Bit Unfair: An Illustration Of The Backlash Against International Arbitration In Latin America, A, David Ma

Journal of Dispute Resolution

With the survival of BITs at fulcrum, the Second Circuit recently decided a highly publicized and notorious case applying international arbitration in Chevron Corp. v. Republic of Ecuador. This comment will discuss Chevron and its effects within the wider corpus of BIT international arbitration to provide an illustration of the current debate and status of the BIT framework. The purported benefits BITs provide to signatory countries exist theoretically, and to test these theoretical underpinnings, this comment will discuss Chevron for the purpose of providing real context to a predominately academic debate. Chevron shall demonstrate that theoretical effects and practical effects …


United States Supreme Court And Class Arbitration: A Tragedy Of Errors, The Symposium, Gary Born, Claudio Salas Jan 2012

United States Supreme Court And Class Arbitration: A Tragedy Of Errors, The Symposium, Gary Born, Claudio Salas

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This Essay describes and critiques the U.S. Supreme Court's recent misadventures with class arbitration. First, the Essay reviews the origins and rise of class arbitration under the FAA, particularly following the Supreme Court's Bazzle decision. In Part II, the Essay discusses application of the unconscionability doctrine to class action waivers, under the California courts' Discover Bank doctrine. In Part III, the Essay recounts the Supreme Court's retrenchment from class arbitration in Stolt-Nielsen and, more fully, in Concepcion. It also critiques the Court's apparent analysis in Concepcion and offers an alternative analysis for the Concepcion result that is more consistent with …


Interference Of The Court Of The Seat With International Arbitration, The Symposium, Giulia Carbone Jan 2012

Interference Of The Court Of The Seat With International Arbitration, The Symposium, Giulia Carbone

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article looks upon two fundamental questions: (1) whether arbitrators should comply with a local court's order aimed at suspending or interrupting the running of arbitral proceedings, and (2) what type of remedies should a party receive when courts unjustly interfere with their right to arbitrate. This article will explore these two questions in four parts. Part II focuses on the interference with international commercial arbitration by the court at the place of the arbitration. It does so by taking into account ICC cases, some relevant national judgments, and deals with the solutions offered by Articles 8 and 16 of …


Border Skirmishes: The Intersection Between Litigation And International Commercial Arbitration, S. I. Strong Jan 2012

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

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In many ways, the relationship between litigation and international commercial arbitration is a curious one, with experts adopting diametrically opposed positions on how the two procedures do or should interact. For example, some people take the view that international commercial arbitration is a uniquely self-contained dispute resolution mechanism that proceeds entirely independent of state control.'


Introduction To The Court Of Arbitration For Sport (Cas) & The Role Of National Courts In International Sports Disputes, An Symposium, Louise Reilly Jan 2012

Introduction To The Court Of Arbitration For Sport (Cas) & The Role Of National Courts In International Sports Disputes, An Symposium, Louise Reilly

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The founding purpose of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) was to take international sports disputes out of national courts and provide a highly specialized forum where those disputes could be heard and decided, quickly and inexpensively, according to a flexible procedure. Since its inception, CAS has gained the recognition and trust of the international sports community and today, is the last instance of appeal for parties involved in a wide-range of sports-related disputes, including those related to all Olympic sports and many non-Olympic sports, football disputes, doping infractions and international commercial contracts. CAS has come to provide sportsmen …


Court Intervention In International Arbitration: The Case For Compulsory Judicial Internationalism Symposium, Frederic Bachand Jan 2012

Court Intervention In International Arbitration: The Case For Compulsory Judicial Internationalism Symposium, Frederic Bachand

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Part I sets out in more detail the proposed interpretive rule. It does so by explaining why the relevant international normative context should always matter when courts are called upon to resolve questions of international arbitration law to which local sources provide no clear answers. In Part H, I address the issue of how precisely that context ought to bear upon the interpretive process. In doing so, I highlight some important distinctions regarding how that context should bear upon the courts' reasoning depending on whether the issue in dispute is governed by uniform law instruments-such as the New York Convention …


Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Must The District Court Issue A Stay After A Decision Adverse To Arbitration Is Appealed, And To What Extent Are Arbitration Clauses Applied Retroactively Note, Benjamin Faber Jan 2012

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back: Must The District Court Issue A Stay After A Decision Adverse To Arbitration Is Appealed, And To What Extent Are Arbitration Clauses Applied Retroactively Note, Benjamin Faber

Journal of Dispute Resolution

By creating new rules to fill in the gaps left by the FAA, the federal circuit courts may have muddied the waters of how and why parties assent to arbitration, and the ramifications of their decisions could change how and why parties bind themselves and each other to arbitration in the future. This note will address these issues in six remaining parts. Part II will briefly outline the pertinent facts of Levin." Part III addresses the circuit split on whether federal courts should issue an automatic stay of legislation pending an appeal to compel arbitration under § 16(a)(1)(A) of the …


Navigating The Borders Between International Commercial Arbitration And U.S. Federal Courts: A Jurisprudential Gps Symposium, S. I. Strong Jan 2012

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

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Finally, the purpose of this Article is not to provide answers to particular questions, since far too much depends on the individual facts and circumstances of a particular dispute to allow for abstract generalizations. Instead, the goal is to identify a useful framework for analysis of matters relating to international commercial arbitration so that newcomers and infrequent participants in this area of law can approach their specific concerns with a higher degree of understanding and sophistication.


Are We Paper Tigers - The Limited Procedural Power Of Arbitrators Under Chinese Law, Chi Manjiao Jul 2011

Are We Paper Tigers - The Limited Procedural Power Of Arbitrators Under Chinese Law, Chi Manjiao

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article explores the extent arbitrators exercise procedural power under Chinese law in six parts. Part II briefly provides background information for the legal framework of Chinese arbitration law and the "dual-track system" in the Chinese arbitration regime. The ensuing parts deal with the three major aspects of arbitrators' procedural power respectively: Part III discusses the power of making jurisdictional decisions, Part IV analyzes the power of making applicable law decisions, and Part V explores the power of issuing interim measures. Part VI concludes that in all three aspects, the procedural power of arbitrators under Chinese law is heavily restricted …


Ethical Problems In Class Arbitration, Andrew Powell, Richard A. Bales Jul 2011

Ethical Problems In Class Arbitration, Andrew Powell, Richard A. Bales

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article examines two significant conflicts of interest that arise in class arbitration in six parts. Part II provides background on the recent evolution of class arbitration, explaining how the Supreme Court had decided several cases involving class arbitration but has not explicitly ruled that class actions are either permitted or forbidden. Part III discusses the conflicts of interest that could arise at the beginning of class arbitration. Part IV discusses conflicts of interest that arise at the end of class arbitration. Part V of this article argues that if and when Congress amends the Federal Arbitration Act to statutorily …


State Legislative Update , Benjamin Angulo, Daniel J. Romine, Matthew Schacht Jul 2011

State Legislative Update , Benjamin Angulo, Daniel J. Romine, Matthew Schacht

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This analysis will examine the sample of bills in four parts. Because some of the proposed state bills are silent on whether their respective bills are reserved for non-commercial matters, Part II examines whether the bills apply to businesses that are parties to business-to-business international commercial contracts. Part III assesses the bills' definition of foreign law to better understand the scope of the anti-foreign law bans. Because each anti-foreign law bill initially defines foreign law as one that is created outside the U.S., Part III analyzes whether the bills' foreign law definitions include international organizations and tribunals. It is important …


You Promised You Wouldn't Tell: Modifying Arbitration Confidentiality Agreements To Allow Third-Party Access To Prior Arbitration Documents, Gotham Holdings, Heath Grades Jul 2010

You Promised You Wouldn't Tell: Modifying Arbitration Confidentiality Agreements To Allow Third-Party Access To Prior Arbitration Documents, Gotham Holdings, Heath Grades

Journal of Dispute Resolution

To facilitate the speed, cost-effectiveness, and casual atmosphere of arbitration, it has long been thought that parties must trade in the usual features of the courts, such as precedent, appellate review, and certain evidentiary rules. With the increasing use of arbitration, many parties have begun to demand that some of the comforts that have long accompanied litigation be merged with the benefits of arbitration. Courts have, for the most part, denied such demands. Nevertheless, the Seventh Circuit in Gotham Holdings allowed such a demand by ruling that third parties must have the opportunity to obtain prior arbitration awards and use …


Union Refusal To Arbitrate: Pyett's Unanswered Question, F. Ryan Van Pelt Jul 2010

Union Refusal To Arbitrate: Pyett's Unanswered Question, F. Ryan Van Pelt

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Kravar v. Triangle Services, Inc., provides the most workable solution to date, balancing competing union, employer, and employee interests. Kravar gives an employee access to federal court, as a matter of right, in the face of union refusal to arbitrate his or her federal statutory claims.8 Although the Federal District Court for the Southern District of New York offered little discussion of the policy behind its new rule, there are sound policy rationales underlying it.


Fallout From 14 Penn Plaza V. Pyett: Fractured Arbitration Systems In The Unionized Workplace, Ann C. Hodges Jan 2010

Fallout From 14 Penn Plaza V. Pyett: Fractured Arbitration Systems In The Unionized Workplace, Ann C. Hodges

Journal of Dispute Resolution

First, the article will review the history of arbitration of statutory employment claims, including the Pyett decision. Second, the article will look at the history and causes of legalism in arbitration. Then the article will consider the probable responses of employers and unions to Pyett. While predictions are necessarily speculative, it is likely that some unionized employers will seek to require employees to arbitrate statutory claims, perhaps in higher percentages than in the nonunion workplace. While unions may, and perhaps should, resist, many future collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) may contain such provisions. The article then discusses the alternative dispute resolution …


Evolving Schizophrenic Nature Of Labor Arbitration, The, Martin H. Malin Jan 2010

Evolving Schizophrenic Nature Of Labor Arbitration, The, Martin H. Malin

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Commentators have rightly criticized Pyett for its complete disregard of decades of established precedent. In this article, however, I situate the Pyett decision in the context of an ongoing evolution in labor arbitration as that institution has tried to accommodate the intrusion of public law claims into a private system of workplace self-governance. I suggest that labor arbitration has developed a kind of schizophrenic existence, preserving its role as a substitute for strikes and other workplace strife in a private system of self-governance while accommodating an additional role as a substitute for litigation of public law claims. Nevertheless, I find …


Holistic Strategy For Coming To Grips With The Creeping Legalism Of Labor Arbitration, A, Stephen L. Hayford Jan 2010

Holistic Strategy For Coming To Grips With The Creeping Legalism Of Labor Arbitration, A, Stephen L. Hayford

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The commentary that follows is a call to advocates to take back responsibility for settling the disputes that arise during the life of the collective bargaining agreement by becoming more adept negotiators, able and willing to find and engage the truth and unafraid to lead and make difficult decisions. Only then will the legal machinations and contortions that increasingly plague labor arbitration be rendered unnecessary in most circumstances. I assert that the "creeping legalism" of labor arbitration is a symptom of the too-frequent failure of the contractual grievance procedure to resolve difficult disputes. The conundrum that phenomenon presents can be …


Sweet Vindication: The Second Circuit Strikes A Blow To Companies That Use Class-Action Waivers In Arbitration Agreements To Avoid The Law, Samuel E. Buffaloe Jan 2010

Sweet Vindication: The Second Circuit Strikes A Blow To Companies That Use Class-Action Waivers In Arbitration Agreements To Avoid The Law, Samuel E. Buffaloe

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Other scholars and courts have concluded that when a class action waiver prevents a plaintiff from vindicating his statutory rights, that waiver should be unenforceable. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit took this approach in In re American Express Merchants' Litigation. The court, however, was careful to point out that these class-action waivers should not be considered unenforceable per se, but that courts must examine each waiver on a case-by-case basis. This note will examine the court's reasoning and will discuss what courts and Congress should do to protect consumers when companies use class-action waivers to avoid …


Arbitration Nation: While Arbitration Grows, Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards May Be Shrinking, F. Shabnam Nouraie Jan 2010

Arbitration Nation: While Arbitration Grows, Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards May Be Shrinking, F. Shabnam Nouraie

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Sands v. Menard, Inc., the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin upheld an arbitration award reinstating a discharged attorney to her position as in-house counsel. On appeal, the court refused to vacate the reinstatement order, notwithstanding the fact that reinstatement was not requested or desired by either party, the effect of reinstatement was likely to violate the ethical rules that bind attorneys, and other remedies were available to compensate the aggrieved party. This note explores the limited but important role that judicial review plays, and will continue to play, in arbitration and how this role affected the outcome of Sands …


When Procedure Moonlights As Reason, There Is Nothing Left To Abuse, Matthew E. Terry Jul 2009

When Procedure Moonlights As Reason, There Is Nothing Left To Abuse, Matthew E. Terry

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Greenstreet v. Social Security Administration, when the Federal Circuit Court of Appeals could not discern exactly what basis upon which an arbitrator acted, it leapt past any presumption in favor of the arbitrator's discretion and found that what an arbitrator did not do was an abuse of his decision-making volition, just as an act beyond his prescriptive powers would have been an abuse of discretion. So, in attempting to weed out the arbitrariness in the arbitration processes that decide workplace punishments, the court heaped needless and unreasoned process squarely into the arbitrator's path, thereby greatly lessening the amount of …


Immunity And Justice For All: Has The Second Circuit Overextended The Doctrine Of Absolute Immunity By Applying It To Arbitration Witnesses, W. Monroe Bonnheim Jan 2009

Immunity And Justice For All: Has The Second Circuit Overextended The Doctrine Of Absolute Immunity By Applying It To Arbitration Witnesses, W. Monroe Bonnheim

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Rolon v. Henneman, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals considered whether absolute immunity should apply to witnesses in an arbitration proceeding. The common law doctrine of absolute immunity from civil liability for judges has a long pedigree dating back to English courts. When the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the doctrine after Congress passed 42 U.S.C. § 1983, the Court cautioned against extending the doctrine beyond judges. Since then, however, the doctrine has been extended to prosecutors and witnesses at public trials, and more recently, to arbitrators and arbitral institutions. Whether absolute immunity should be further extended to witnesses …


Crowning The New King: The Statutory Arbitrator And The Demise Of Judicial Review, Michael H. Leroy Jan 2009

Crowning The New King: The Statutory Arbitrator And The Demise Of Judicial Review, Michael H. Leroy

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Judicial review of arbitration awards is highly deferential-but when does it become rubber stamping? Using original data, I find that federal courts vacated only 4.3 percent of 162 disputed arbitration awards. A sub-sample of forty-four employment discrimination arbitration awards under Title VII produced similar results. By comparison, federal Courts of Appeals in 2006 reversed 12.9 percent of 5,917 rulings made by civil court judges on the merits of legal claims.


Is It The Real Thing: How Coke's One-Way Binding Arbitration May Bridge The Divide Between Litigation And Arbitration, Suzette M. Malveaux Jan 2009

Is It The Real Thing: How Coke's One-Way Binding Arbitration May Bridge The Divide Between Litigation And Arbitration, Suzette M. Malveaux

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article is comprised of six parts. Part I introduces the topic. Part II examines the growing prevalence of compulsory pre-dispute arbitration agreements in employment contracts and the problems with such agreements. Part III describes the challenges employees face in the federal court system: higher pleading thresholds for intentional discrimination claims, the federal judiciary's current antagonism toward employee claims of discrimination (as demonstrated by recent empirical studies), and a beleaguered EEOC. Part IV describes how Coke adopted one-way binding arbitration and explores the ways in which this alternative is preferable to both mandatory arbitration and civil litigation for employees, employers, …


What's Fair Is Fair: Tribal Assertions Of Jurisdiction Over Arbitration Decisions, Matthew E. Terry Jan 2009

What's Fair Is Fair: Tribal Assertions Of Jurisdiction Over Arbitration Decisions, Matthew E. Terry

Journal of Dispute Resolution

While the modem trend is to provide tribes with a certain amount of latitude in some areas, the court in First Specialty Insurance Corp. v. Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon was tasked with shoehorning the facts into the applicable precedent because the various doctrines defining the limits of tribal jurisdiction under the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") have not often been tested, as they were here. The district court's opinion followed the modem trend by upholding the Tribe's assertion of its court system's jurisdiction, yet the court did not establish a precedent that should trouble the notion …


Expanding The Power Of U.S. Courts In Private International Arbitration - Moderation Loses To An Extreme, Amy Moore Jan 2008

Expanding The Power Of U.S. Courts In Private International Arbitration - Moderation Loses To An Extreme, Amy Moore

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Since its inception, 28 U.S.C. § 17822 has been the subject of revisions, amendments, and much debate. This history is symptomatic of the evolving nature of United States presence in the international legal and business world; however, the statutory changes have not always been clear in purpose or application. In 2004, the Supreme Court granted certiorari for Intel Corp. v. Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., in order to solidify interpretation of § 1782's latest rendition, a 1964 congressional revision. Unfortunately, in expanding the accepted scope of § 1782, the Court created new ambiguity, especially in how the statute should relate to …


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 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 …


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 …