Law Commons^™

Reporting On Palin: Negotiations In Political Theater, Erin Ryan

Erin Ryan

Why Arbitrate? The Questionable Quest For Efficiency In Hallstreet Street Associates, Llc V. Mattel, Inc., 550 U.S. __ (2008), David K. Kessler

David K Kessler

The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) makes arbitration agreements between private parties legally enforceable. The policy favoring arbitration underlying the FAA has been justified as serving two ends: it protects freedom of contract, and it creates an efficient alternative dispute resolution system. Previous decisions by the Court have indicated a belief that, when those two goals come into conflict, the result that preserves freedom of contract should prevail. In Hallstreet Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., however, a recent case involving the Federal Arbitration Act, the Court's decision preserved perceived efficiency at the expense of freedom of contract. The Court held that …

"Every Day And In Every Way, We Are Becoming Meta And Meta:" Or How Communitarian Bargaining Theory Conquered The World (Of Bargaining Theory), Robert J. Condlin

Robert J. Condlin

Debate over the relative merits of communitarian and adversarial theories of dispute negotiation has pre-occupied legal bargaining scholarship for at least twenty years. Seen as a negotiation, this debate makes it clear that communitarians are by far the better bargainers. In a move one might think more characteristic of adversarial bargainers, communitarians changed the definition of bargaining effectiveness by reconstituting the world in which bargaining operates (the meta move of the title – in communitarian terms they “changed the game by changing the frame”), and in the process made adversarial bargaining obsolete. Many of the arguments and maneuvers used in …

Why Arbitrate? The Questionable Quest For Efficiency In Hallstreet Street Associates, Llc V. Mattel, Inc., David K. Kessler

David K Kessler

The Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) makes arbitration agreements between private parties legally enforceable. The policy favoring arbitration underlying the FAA has been justified as serving two ends: it protects freedom of contract, and it creates an efficient alternative dispute resolution system. Previous decisions by the Court have indicated a belief that, when those two goals come into conflict, the result that preserves freedom of contract should prevail. In Hallstreet Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., however, a recent case involving the Federal Arbitration Act, the Court’s decision preserved perceived efficiency at the expense of freedom of contract. The Court held that …

Can We Talk?, Don Peters

Don Peters

CAN WE TALK: OVERCOMING BARRIERS TO MEDIATING PRIVATE TRANSBORDER COMMERCIAL DISPUTES IN THE AMERICAS Don Peters

This article examines cognitive and cultural barriers creating the comparatively infrequent use of mediation to resolve private, transborder commercial disputes in the Americas. It begins by analyzing the challenges of transborder commercial litigation. It then develops and supports the claim that international arbitration, the most frequently used transborder commercial dispute resolution method , suffers from many of litigation’s disadvantages, including excessive expense and delay, sacrificing outcome control, damaging or ending rather than preserving and improving commercial relationships, and using legalistic, rights based perspectives which …

Bundles Of Hope: Putting Aspirations In Order, Marc A. Morgan

Marc A. Morgan

The primary purpose of this paper is to discuss cardinal utility theories of how aspiration affects negotiation and to propose an alternative ordinal utility theory of how aspiration affects negotiation. In the cardinal utility theories, used by some legal scholars, aspiration in negotiation is a utility maximizing point after which negotiators become increasingly loss averse. While in the ordinal utility theory this paper proposes, aspiration in negotiation is a goal that maximizes utility subject to constraints and subjective preferences.

Compelling Mediation In The Context Of Med-Arb Agreements, Sean-Patrick Wilson, David J. Mclean

Sean-Patrick Wilson

The recent case of Advanced Bodycare v. Thione, 07-12309, 2008 U.S. App. LEXIS 8584 (11th Cir. Apr. 21, 2008) invited the Eleventh Circuit to explore which types of ADR are considered “arbitration” for purpose of the Federal Arbitration Act, 9 U.S.C. § 1 (“FAA”). According to the Eleventh Circuit, an agreement to mediate, as well as an agreement to either mediate or arbitrate, falls outside of the FAA’s scope, making the FAA’s remedies unavailing to parties wishing to use its provisions to stay litigation or to compel a single agreement which requires the parties to either mediate or arbitrate. The …

Bargaining In The Shadow Of Violence: The Npt, Iaea, And Nuclear Non-Proliferation Negotiations, Arsalan M. Suleman

Arsalan Suleman

The NPT non-proliferation regime is both a multilateral treaty of international law and a dispute system designed to manage conflict over the use of nuclear technology. The system seeks to balance the competing desires of member-states to have access to peaceful nuclear technology and to provide national security. In the course of implementation, the system must handle disputes over alleged violations of the NPT and IAEA safeguards agreements. Negotiations, crucial to the functioning of the NPT dispute system, are undertaken in the shadow of the law and the shadow of violence. The NPT and any relevant agreement signed with the …

Two Crises Of Confidence: Securing Non-Proliferation And The Rule Of Law Through Security Council Resolutions, Vik Kanwar

Vik Kanwar

This timely article describes the powers of the United Nations Security Council as they have developed in the field of non-proliferation, and demonstrated in recent resolutions, and goes on to propose a normative framework based on the model of reciprocal “confidence-building” measures to ensure the legality and legitimacy of these resolutions.

Recent proliferation crises (concerning Iran, North Korea, and non-state proliferation networks) have led the Council draw upon various sources-- express and implied powers under the UN Charter, powers granted by specific treaties, and an unusual degree of international consensus-- to expand its powers. This paper attempts to transcend false …

The Movement Toward Early Case Handling In Courts And Private Dispute Resolution, John Lande

John Lande

This article identifies early case handling (ECH) as an important general phenomenon in dispute system design theory and practice, catalogs the major ECH processes, and urges practitioners and policymakers to encourage use of and experimentation with ECH processes when appropriate. The key element of ECH is that people intentionally exercise responsibility for handling the case from the outset. ECH processes in courts include early case management procedures, differentiated case management systems, early neutral evaluation, and other early alternative dispute resolution (ADR) processes. ECH in the private sector includes ADR pledges and contract clauses, early case assessment and ADR screening protocols, …

Employment Law, Negotiation And The Business Environment: A Cooperative Collective Bargaining Negotiation Of The National Hockey League Lockout Of 2004, Corey A. Ciocchetti

Corey A Ciocchetti

Teaching courses revolving around business law and ethics is a daunting challenge. Students need real-world examples to make the difficult topics and concepts come to life. This artcile explores legal negotiation and negotiation ethics in the context of the National Hockey League Lockout of 2004-2005.

The article describes the basics of collective bargaining and negotiation strategy and then offers a group exercise to hammer out a CBA. Student teams represent the NHL Owners and NHL Player's Union respectively and enter into a series of three timed negotiations followed by a large group debrief.

The exercise described in this article won …