Law Commons^™

Primer Congreso Nacional De Organismos Públicos Autónomos, Bruno L. Costantini García

Bruno L. Costantini García

Memorias del Primer Congreso Nacional de Organismos Públicos Autonomos

Adding Judicial Mediation To The Debate About Judges Attempting To Settle Cases Assigned To Them For Trial, Peter Robinson

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The article then explores the ramifications of the Uniform Mediation Act's express inapplicability of its confidentiality provisions to a mediation "conducted by a judge who might make a ruling on the case." Finally, the article suggests how the advent of judicial mediation might lead to standards of practice that would clarify the law and resolve the debate about judges conducting either settlement conferences or mediations for cases assigned to them for trial.

How Can A Mediator Be Both Impartial And Fair: Why Ethical Standards Of Conduct Create Chaos For Mediators, Susan Nauss Exon

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article focuses on newly developing Standards designed to regulate the mediation industry with respect to civil disputes. The particular focus is on the mediator's requirements of neutrality and impartiality and whether these requirements are impacted by assurances of a fair result and other fairness concepts such as a balanced process and informed decision making. The basic problem is that mediators are guided by Standards and stand-alone definitions of mediation, yet many Standards contain contradictory or vague provisions. Furthermore, the mediator's actual role may be dictated by her own personal style, values, and commercial needs in conjunction with the parties' …

Thou Shalt Love Thy Neighbor: Rluipa And The Mediation Of Religious Land Use Disputes, Jeffrey H. Goldfien

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The question addressed in this article is whether existing systems for processing religious land use claims are well-suited to the task. The conclusion is that they are not, and that local officials and others involved in religious land use disputes ought to consider employing mediation at an early stage. The main virtue of mediation in this context is the opportunity it provides for disputants to meet face-to-face in an effort to understand the views of others, even if they do not agree with them. Facilitated dialogues among persons with differing perspectives is precisely what is missing from the traditional systems …

New Judicial Hostility To Arbitration: Federal Preemption, Contract Unconscionability, And Agreements To Arbitrate, The, Steven J. Burton

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Part I of this Article sketches the basics of arbitration law and practice, and traces the development of the federal policy favoring arbitration, to establish a basis for evaluating contemporary judicial decisions. Part II examines the justification for the policy favoring arbitration and the reasons contracting parties may prefer arbitration. Part III evaluates the reasons courts give for finding arbitration agreements in employment and consumer contexts unconscionable, and therefore, unenforceable. The conclusion is that many courts make many clearly erroneous decisions, including decisions that are unconstitutional because they are preempted.

Working With Len, James E. Westbrook

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Len Riskin joined the MU faculty in 1984. Our faculty had voted in response to a recommendation of Dean Dale Whitman to begin a new emphasis on alternative dispute resolution. My recollection is that we had a group of very capable teachers with a traditional bent. On the other hand, they had an open mind about trying something new and they got along with each other very well. The kind of faculty we had and the leadership provided by Len, Dale Whitman and a few faculty members such as Tim Heinsz enabled us to do something that surprised a lot …

Reflections On A Mindful Giant: A Tribute To Len Riskin, Margaret Shaw

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Len Riskin is a man who is usually associated with raisins. This is because he is known for getting you to close your eyes and picture grapes growing on a vine somewhere in South America and after a really, really long time and a really, really long trip for those grapes, you get to take a miniscule bite out of the raisin you have been holding that gradually has become the focus of all of your attention.

After Basic Mindfulness Mediation: External Mindfulness, Emotional Truthfulness, And Lie Detection In Dispute Resolution, Clark Freshman

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Some years ago, our mutual friend, Carrie Menkel-Meadow, suggested Len Riskin and I talk about our shared interest in mindfulness meditation and negotiation. At the time, I had students sit quietly, eyes closed, get in touch with what was going on before a negotiation, write it out, and then crumple up the paper. It was a primitive form of meditation and journaling and, as I look back through research, not a very sound theoretical or empirically-supported way to help.' Eventually, mindfulness meditation and practices helped move me from my very primitive attempts at mindfulness to a very rich practice that …

Resolving Conflict Together: The Understanding-Based Model Of Mediation, Gary Friedman, Jack Himmelstein

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The following excerpt is from a book in progress-tentatively titled, Resolving Conflict Together: The Understanding-Based Model of Mediation-that is planned to be published in 2007 by the American Bar Association. In this book, we seek to set out the approach to mediation that we have been developing through our work with the Center for Mediation in Law (the Center). We have termed this approach the "Understanding-Based Model" of mediation. The book develops twelve mediation cases, in which Gary served as mediator and which, with commentary, serve to transmit our approach to mediation. Each case focuses on a different aspect of …

State Legislative Update, Melissa Blair, Michael Benton, Jessica Gunder, David Lefevre

Journal of Dispute Resolution

As of December 1, 2006, twenty-eight states have enacted some type of right to cure legislation. On April, 28, 2006, Georgia, one of the twenty-eight, amended its construction defect dispute resolution procedures to clarify the responsibilities of the parties. Pennsylvania attempted to become the twenty-ninth, the bill having passed both houses of the legislature, but the Governor vetoed the bill on March 17. Right to cure legislation was considered in South Dakota, but it was deferred to the 36th Legislative Day on February 8, 2006.

Mediator As Peacemaker: The Case For Activist Transformative-Narrative Mediation, Christopher Harper

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article proposes an approach to mediation encompassing aspects of both of these takes on mediation, something one might loosely think of as "activist transformative-narrative mediation." Essentially, this approach assumes the aspirations and ideology of Professor Gunning's "activist" take on transformative mediation and achieves those aspirations using techniques from narrative mediation. By employing this approach, mediators can actively assist parties to identify and achieve reconciliation, peace, and justice.

Faa Preemption By Choice-Of-Law Provisions: Enforceable Or Unenforceable, Ross Ball

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Generally, choice-of-law provisions allow corporations that do business in several states or countries to draft their agreements and conduct their business in accordance with the law they choose. When the choice-of-law provision is contained in a contract that does not have an agreement to arbitrate, courts generally have no qualms about enforcing them. However, when the contract does contain an agreement to arbitrate, courts are reluctant to enforce the choice-of-law provision as to the arbitration agreement because the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) governs arbitration agreements. This issue has been the source of much confusion and litigation in the field of …

Courts Have The Final Say: Does The Doctrine Of Manifest Disregard Promote Lawful Arbitral Awards Or Disguise Unlawful Judicial Review, Lindsay Biesterfeld

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In exchange for a speedy, economical dispute resolution process, parties that submit to binding arbitration assume the risk that an arbitrator might misapply the law. United States Supreme Court precedent and federal law favor agreements to arbitrate by limiting judicial review of arbitral awards and requiring courts to "rigorously enforce arbitration agreements." These judicial constraints support the arbitral goals of efficiency and finality by reducing the risk that arbitral awards will be vacated on appeal. To balance the risk that arbitrators may abuse this standard of review, courts have supplemented restricted judicial review with a doctrine that allows an arbitral …

No Do-Overs For Parties Who Agree To Limit Review Of An Arbitrator's Decision, Patrick Gill

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Under the FAA, review of arbitration awards is limited to specific circumstances. However, in many instances, these default rules can be modified by contractual provisions including increasing or decreasing the level of review of arbitration awards. Although a broader scope of review is contrary to the main purposes of arbitration, courts have held that a contractual provision expanding judicial review is permissible. Furthermore, in some limited circumstances, courts have held that a contractual limitation on judicial review is permitted by the FAA where the restriction is clearly manifested in the contract and the process will not become unfair as a …

Closing The Door, But Opening A Window: The Supreme Court's Reaffirmation Of Applying The Federal Arbitration Act To The States, Caroline Kornelis

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The instant case reinforces two key Supreme Court cases regarding the enforcement of arbitration agreements, and the requirement that when parties disagree about the validity of a contract which contains an arbitration clause, the dispute should go directly to an arbitrator, and not be determined by a court. While this case adds no new law to the arbitration landscape per se, it does reaffirm the Supreme Court's, as well as Congress's, firm stance on promoting arbitration. At first glance, the opinion seems to be a cut and dry reaffirmation of principles that have been present in Unites States Supreme Court …

Due Process And Punitive Damages: The Error Of Federal Excessiveness Jurisprudence, A. Benjamin Spencer

Faculty Publications

The Supreme Court, in a line of several cases over the past decade, has established a rigorous federal constitutional excessiveness review for punitive damages awards based on the Due Process Clause. As a matter of substantive due process, says the Court, punitive awards must be evaluated by three "guideposts" set forth in BMW of North America v. Gore: the degree of reprehensibility of the defendant's conduct, the ratio between punitive and compensatory damages, and a comparison of the amount of punitive damages to any "civil or criminal penalties that could be imposed for comparable misconduct." Following up on this pronouncement …

The Law Of International Commercial Arbitration In Singapore, Warren B. Chik

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The Singapore dispute resolution landscape entered the new millennium with the reconstruction of the dual carriageway for arbitration. In 2002, the old road to arbitral resolution of disputes ( i.e. , the old Arbitration Act and the old International Arbitration Act ) were reconstructed and what emerged were two updated legislations: the Arbitration Act and the International Arbitration Act . At about the same time, the Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC) also diversified with the introduction of a new set of Domestic Arbitration Rules.

Bond Repudiation, Tax Codes, The Appropriations Process And Restitution Post-Eminent Domain Reform, John H. Ryskamp

ExpressO

This brief comment suggests where the anti-eminent domain movement might be heading next.

Judicial Intervention In International Arbitration: A Comparative Study Of The Scope Of The New York Convention In U.S. And Chinese Courts, Jian Zhou

Washington International Law Journal

The New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards has been praised as one of the most efficient and powerful multilateral legal instruments in promoting international commercial arbitration. The implementation of the Convention, however, depends heavily on the domestic legal mechanisms of contracting states. By strategically adjusting its scope, local courts may expand or limit the benefits of the Convention in a significant way. The comparison between the practices of United States and Chinese courts present two extreme examples of this scope issue. There is considerable room to improve the domestic implementation of the Convention in …

China International Economic Trade Arbitration Commission In 2006: New Rules, Same Results?, Benjamin O. Kostrzewa

Washington International Law Journal

In May of 2005, the China International Economic Trade Arbitration Commission (“CIETAC”) was updated with new rules designed to bring it into conformity with international arbitration standards. The rules were the most recent efforts by the Chinese government to provide foreign companies with an alternative to the Chinese judiciary, which is often considered parochial, unsophisticated, and unable to handle modern business conflicts. The new rules cure many of the problems associated with arbitration in China and have created a predominantly fair and professional dispute resolution forum. Currently, CIETAC suffers more from award collection problems rather than problems in its rules …

Dispute Review Boards: Expected Application On Egyptian Large Scale Construction Projects, Islam Hassan El-Adaway

Archived Theses and Dissertations

No abstract provided.

The Effects Of Alternative Dispute Resolution On Access To Justice In Utah, James R. Holbrook

Utah Law Review

Thousands of cases are resolved every year in Utah by private and court sponsored mediation and other ADR programs, and ADR utilization trends are moving up every year. Since 1990, over 3600 lawyers and non-lawyers have received mediator training in Utah. Clearly, ADR has a growing positive impact on access to justice in this state. However, it is just as clear that ADR by itself does not satisfy the huge and growing unmet needs of moderate-income, low-income, and poor people for dispute resolution services in this state.

Equal Justice From A New Perspective: The Need For A First-Year Clinical Course On Public Interest Mediation, David Dominguez

Utah Law Review

It really is possible to deliver enough no-cost or low-cost legal problem solving services to provide equal justice. To get there, however, we need to experiment with new strategies and methods to achieve the goal, including the new skill of PIM. My hunch is that if first-year law students can prove to themselves in a clinical setting that public service lawyering can produce a multiplier effect for the greater public good, a new commitment to equal justice will emerge in the legal profession.

Mediators Without Borders: How Technology Is Leading The Charge To Globalised Dispute Resolution, Nadja Alexander

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation has made it to Hollywood. The opening scene of the romantic comedy The Wedding Crashers (2005) features a hilarious attempt at divorce mediation. The mediation scene does not demonstrate any mediation skills to be emulated and the film itself, apart from the opening scene, has nothing to do with mediation. Nevertheless one cannot ignore the power of the borderless dream machine called Hollywood. The Hollywood film industry does more than export films and fantasies around the world; it is a driving force in the globalisation of the themes with which it deals. When mediation becomes one of those themes …

Adversarial Or Inquisitorial: Which Approach Is Closer To Arbitration?, Ahmed Galal Zaki

Archived Theses and Dissertations

Adversarial techniques such as pre-trial discovery of documents, cross-examination, and lengthy oral pleadings are now in vogue in the conduct of international commercial arbitration proceedings. This paper responds to this trend by analyzing both the adversarial and the inquisitorial systems in an attempt to demonstrate which is more fulfilling to the objectives of international commercial arbitration. These objectives are party autonomy, neutrality, efficiency, flexibility, and confidentiality. In the finale, the paper provides that although the adversarial system is in line with the autonomy rights of those who opt for arbitration, its inquisitorial counterpart is more neutral, efficient, flexible, and confidential. …

Summary Of Winston Products Co. V. Deboer, 122 Nev. Adv. Op. 4, Dustin Howell

Nevada Supreme Court Summaries

This case examines “the method used to compute the time for filing motions for judgment as a matter of law and for a new trial and the tolling period to file a notice of appeal when these motions are served by mail or electronic means.”2 This case also addresses the issue of whether tolling motions also toll the time to appeal from a post-judgment order awarding attorney fees and costs.

Review Essay: Using All Available Information, Max Huffman

ExpressO

This is a review essay entitled “Using All Available Information,” in which I review and comment on Justice Stephen Breyer’s new book, Active Liberty: Interpreting Our Democratic Constitution, published in September 2005. Justice Breyer’s book, adapted from the Tanner Lectures given in 2005 at Harvard Law School, serves partly as a response to Justice Scalia’s 1997 volume A Matter of Interpretation: Federal Courts and the Law. I review Justice Breyer’s book in part by comparison to and contrast with Justice Scalia’s. I propose that much about Justice Breyer’s interpretive philosophy, which centers on determining the “purposes” of texts and interpreting …

The New Judicial Hostility To Arbitration: Unconscionability And Agreements To Arbitrate, Steven J. Burton

ExpressO

Many, many contract disputes are now being settled by arbitration instead of litigation. The United States Supreme Court strongly favors the enforcement of agreements to arbitrate that fall within the Federal Arbitration Act. This Article shows that many lower courts, however, are using the contract unconscionability doctrine to refuse enforcement of agreements to arbitrate. It argues (1) that many such lower court decisions should be pre-empted by the Federal Arbitration Act, and (2) that lower courts should give due weight to the federal policy favoring arbitration when deciding whether to enforce an agreement to arbitrate.

Sovereignty Of Aves Island: An Argument Against Standardized, Compulsory Arbitration, Michael S. Garrison

ExpressO

States engaging in preemptive dispute resolution frequently call upon adjudicative or diplomatic means to resolve territorial boundary disputes and comply with international law. In light of reduced efficacy of such dispute resolution mechanisms, however, some propose that all states should engage in compulsory, standardized arbitration subject to International Court of Justice (“I.C.J.”) review to resolve their boundary disputes. Although arbitration is an effective method of international dispute resolution in certain cases, standardized arbitration will not effectively resolve all boundary disputes between neighbor states.

This Comment argues against the proposition that the United Nations (“U.N.”) implement a standardized arbitration mechanism and …

Final Offer Arbitration In The New Era Of Major League Baseball, Spencer B. Gordon

ExpressO

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the economic, athletic, and social impact of final offer salary arbitration in Major League Baseball (“MLB”). The article delves into the motivations, fluctuations, and evolution of the player-owner relationship and free agency. The commentary then focuses on the distinguishing features and intricacies of final offer arbitration. Although salary arbitration in the context of Major League Baseball is a topic oft discussed in the law review setting, the analysis rarely reaches the level exhibited in this article. Moreover, most articles on the subject were written between 1996 and 2000 when the 1994 players’ strike …