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Full-Text Articles in Law

Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple Sep 2016

Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple

Noel Semple

The judicial role in child custody and visitation disputes has traditionally been understood as one of authoritative decision-making. However this new empirical research suggests that many family court judges prioritize the pursuit of voluntary settlement in pre-trial conferences, using evaluative and facilitative mediation techniques. Drawing on qualitative interviews with judges and other family law professionals in Toronto and New York City, this article identifies points of consensus and controversy among settlement-seeking family judges. Despite the general support for settlement-seeking, there are substantial differences of opinion regarding coercion, due process, and the meaning of the best interests of the child standard.


Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple Sep 2016

Judicial Settlement-Seeking In Parenting Disputes: Consensus And Controversy, Noel Semple

Noel Semple

The judicial role in child custody and visitation disputes has traditionally been understood as one of authoritative decision-making. However this new empirical research suggests that many family court judges prioritize the pursuit of voluntary settlement in pre-trial conferences, using evaluative and facilitative mediation techniques. Drawing on qualitative interviews with judges and other family law professionals in Toronto and New York City, this article identifies points of consensus and controversy among settlement-seeking family judges. Despite the general support for settlement-seeking, there are substantial differences of opinion regarding coercion, due process, and the meaning of the best interests of the child standard.


Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation Of Civil Rights In The Workplace, John M. Lande, Lauren B. Edelman, Howard S. Erlanger Aug 2016

Internal Dispute Resolution: The Transformation Of Civil Rights In The Workplace, John M. Lande, Lauren B. Edelman, Howard S. Erlanger

Lauren Edelman

Many employers create internal procedures for the resolution of discrimination complaints. We examine internal complaint handlers' conceptions of civil rights law and the implications of those conceptions for their approach to dispute resolution. Drawing on interview data, we find that complaint handlers tend to subsume legal rights under managerial interests. They construct civil rights law as a diffuse standard of fairness, consistent with general norms of good management. Although they seek to resolve complaints to restore smooth employment relations, they tend to recast discrimination claims as typical managerial problems. While the assimilation of law into the management realm may extend …


Nelson Mandela As Negotiator: What Can We Learn From Him?, Harold I. Abramson Aug 2016

Nelson Mandela As Negotiator: What Can We Learn From Him?, Harold I. Abramson

Harold I. Abramson

This article considers how “the greatest negotiator of the twentieth century,” Nelson Mandela, approached negotiating the unbanning of the African National Congress (ANC), the dismantling of apartheid, and his own freedom after twenty-seven years of imprisonment. He employed classically good negotiation practices in the face of intense and violent opposition while confined in prison for life. If he could be successful, why cannot lawyers succeed when facing less daunting disputes?This article focuses on the period starting in 1985, when Mandela refused an offer to be released if he would condemn violence, until 1990, when President de Klerk gave his historic …


Lawyers Without Borders, Catherine A. Rogers Apr 2016

Lawyers Without Borders, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

Professional regulation of attorneys is still attempting to catch up with the burgeoning international legal profession, which until recently has been wholly unregulated. The primary effort has been through revisions to Model Rule 8.5 to extend the reach of the Rule to international cases and professional activities in foreign countries. Because Rule 8.5 was drafted for domestic multi-jurisdiction practice, however, it is based on assumptions about territoriality and the historical relationship between the jurisdiction of tribunals and the licensing of attorneys that are simply inapposite in international settings. As a result, applying Rule 8.5 to international tribunals and international advocacy …


Regulating International Arbitrators: A Functional Approach To Developing Standards Of Conduct, Catherine A. Rogers Apr 2016

Regulating International Arbitrators: A Functional Approach To Developing Standards Of Conduct, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

Some scholars have protested that arbitrators are subject to less exacting regulation than barbers and taxidermists. The real problem with international arbitrators, however, is not that they are subject to less regulation, but that no one agrees about how they should be regulated. The primary reason for judicial and scholarly disagreement is that, instead of a coherent theory, analysis of arbitrator conduct erroneously relies on a misleading judicial referent and a methodologic failure to separate conduct standards (meaning those norms or rules that guide arbitrators' professional conduct) from enforcement standards (meaning those narrow grounds under which an arbitral award can …


The Vocation Of International Arbitrators, Catherine A. Rogers Apr 2016

The Vocation Of International Arbitrators, Catherine A. Rogers

Catherine Rogers

This Essay examines the vocation of the international arbitrator. I begin by evaluating, under sociological frameworks developed in literature on Weberian theories of the professions, how the arbitration community is organized and regulated. Arbitrators operate in a largely private and unregulated market for services, access to which is essentially controlled by what might be considered a governing cartel of the most elite arbitrators. I conclude my description with an account of how recently international arbitrators have begun to display a professional impulse, meaning efforts to present themselves as a profession to obtain the benefits of professionalization. Professional status is often …


The Rise In Judicial Hostility To Arbitration: Revisiting Hall Street Associates, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

The Rise In Judicial Hostility To Arbitration: Revisiting Hall Street Associates, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

When the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in Hall Street Associates,LLC v. Mattel, Inc., commentators expected the Court to resolve the split among the federal circuits regarding the validity and enforceability of 'opt-in' agreements.Since the late 1990s, these agreements had become a means through which contracting parties could obtain enhanced judicial supervision of arbitral awards by providing for judicial review of the merits of arbitrator rulings. While commentators got a resolution to the split, they received a great deal more than they had been promised. Stylistic opacity made the opinion in Hall Street somewhat inaccessible. In fact, as rendered, …


The Revolution In Law Through Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

The Revolution In Law Through Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

My subject is arbitration. I explore how its re-emergence during the last forty years has revolutionized the thinking about, and the practice of, law. The development of a "strong federal policy favoring arbitration" cast aside traditional acceptations about law and adjudication. The rule of law-the human civilization associated with law and the legal process-has been profoundly, perhaps irretrievably, altered by the rise of arbitration. The landmark cases in labor and employment arbitration- Alexander v.Gardner-Denver Company (the "old time religion") and Gilmer v. Interstate/JohnsonLane Corporation (the "new age" thinking)- attest to the enormous distance that separates past and present concepts of …


The Ballad Of Transborder Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

The Ballad Of Transborder Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

International commercial arbitration (ICA) is many things positive. Because business transactions cannot take place without a functional system of adjudication,ICA has enabled parties to engage in and pursue international commerce. As a result, it has had an enormous impact upon the international practice of law, the structuring of a de facto international legal system, and the development of a substantive world law of commerce. In a word, ICA has been a vital engine in the creation of a transborder rule of law. Furthering this design, the arbitral "method"has even been applied to the unruly political problems that attend international trade …


The Exercise Of Contract Freedom In The Making Of Arbitration Agreements, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

The Exercise Of Contract Freedom In The Making Of Arbitration Agreements, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

A universal principle of contemporary arbitration law is that contract plays a vital role in the governance of arbitration. The vitality of that role can vary by legal system, court,statute, or treaty. Nonetheless, party agreement often provides the most significant rules for regulating arbitrations and conducting arbitral proceedings. This is especially true in international commercial arbitration. There, the lack of a functional transborder legislativeand adjudicatory process made contract the principal source of law for internationalcommercial transactions and arbitrations. Although law-making is more possible withinindividual national legal systems, the rule of contract freedom is also firmly established inmatters of domestic arbitration. …


Judicial Approbation In Building The Civilization Of Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Judicial Approbation In Building The Civilization Of Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

This article describes and assesses the work of three national courts in regard to arbitration. The English experience demonstrates that judicial diffidence toward arbitration and concomitant reverence for the cohesion of substantive law can hamper the acceptance and function of arbitration within the legal system. The French and American experiences attest to a contradistinctive use of judicial authority in regard to arbitration. In both legal systems, the courts have been instrumental to the elaboration of a receptive and accommodating law on arbitration. In these legal systems, legislative enactments are used as a springboard for developing a judicial policy and decisional …


Commercial Peace And Political Competition In The Crosshairs Of International Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Commercial Peace And Political Competition In The Crosshairs Of International Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

This article examines the mixed effect of arbitration upon the generation of international law norms; in particular, how arbitration can generate private law norms so effectively and yet still face strong resistance in public international law processes and controversies. The work of arbitration for international commercial litigation has been nothing less than spectacular. In both the private international and domestic civil contexts, arbitration has provided viable remedial solutions and functional adjudication when the law was either nonexistent or incapacitated. It has supplied a workable and adaptable trial system, which-on the international side-could also generate substantive legal norms. Arbitration thereby has …


Arguments In Favor Of The Triumph Of Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Arguments In Favor Of The Triumph Of Arbitration, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

Arbitration is not just another trial procedure. It epitomizes a practical understanding of the purpose and value of adjudicatory procedures. It poses a substantial challenge to adversarial litigation by exposing its underlying irrationality and its destructive impact upon society. It guarantees the rule of law domestically and internationally through affordable access, expedited proceedings, expertise, and bridging the gap between national legal systems. It is a valuable institution that should not become a pawn in the tired and unimaginative political discourse that substitutes 'talking points' for genuine reflection and debate. The gravamen of the current attack on arbitration is not the …


Arbitral Law-Making, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Arbitral Law-Making, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

Diversity--of a cultural, economic, religious, and political kind—exists not only among nation-states and in the sources and interpretation of international law, but also among the group of commentators who study the interactions of transborder actors and institutions. For example, sociologists interested in the global community seek to identify emerging entities and activities and to elaborate conceptual models that explain the new differentiations within the traditional pattern. Some of them have a mounting interest in the fashioning of transborder commercial justice by international arbitrators and private arbitral institutions. Who are these new players? How did they acquire their mandate? Further, how …


Arbitration And The U.S. Supreme Court: A Plea For Statutory Reform, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Arbitration And The U.S. Supreme Court: A Plea For Statutory Reform, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

This Article argues for stabilizing and preserving arbitration's necessary and valuable vocation in dispute resolution. It outlines the basic stages in the evolution of the American law of arbitration and studies the underlying motivation of each of its historical phases. It attributes vital significance to the legislative and decisional law developments that led to an early rehabilitation of arbitration in American law, beginning with the enactment of the United States Arbitration Act (FAA) in 1925 and continuing with the ratification of the New York Arbitration Convention and the elaboration of a "hospitable" federal caselaw. Eventually, these developments gave rise to …


Building The Civilization Of Arbitration - Introduction, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Building The Civilization Of Arbitration - Introduction, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

The U.S. Supreme Court's work product has generated a large and growing arbitration bar. It also has finally begun to stimulate a greater volume of academic activity on the topic of arbitration. The work of legal practitioners and academics,along with the courts' decisional law, are "Building a Civilization of Arbitration" that codifies advances and grapples with the controversial aspects of law-in-the making.The Penn State Dickinson School of Law takes great pride in welcoming a distinguished group of lawyers and law teachers to the pages of its Law Review.They are the leaders in the field of arbitration. Their contributions identify the …


Arbitral Justice: The Demise Of Due Process In American Law, Thomas E. Carbonneau Apr 2016

Arbitral Justice: The Demise Of Due Process In American Law, Thomas E. Carbonneau

Thomas Carbonneau

Arbitration consists of a process for resolving disputes in a final and binding manner outside the traditional court system. The rules that govern arbitration provide for flexible proceedings and do not require the strict application of legal rules. Owing largely to the holdings of the U.S. Supreme Court, arbitration law and procedure have emerged from the obscurity of specialized practice and entered the adjudicatory mainstream. In 1925, with the enactment of the U.S. Arbitration Act, the U.S. Congress declaredthe rehabilitation of arbitral justice and dispute resolution. These provisionsanticipated, in effect, the modern, world-wide legislative legitimization ofarbitration. Primarily because of the …