Law Commons^™

Labor And Employment Law, David C. Burton, Melissa L. Lykins

University of Richmond Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Flight From Arbitration: An Empirical Study Of Ex Ante Arbitration Clauses In Publicly-Held Companies’ Contracts, Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey Miller

ExpressO

We study a data set of 2,858 contracts contained as exhibits in Form 8-K filings by reporting corporations over a six month period in 2002 for twelve types of contracts and a seven month period in 2002 for merger contracts. Because 8-K filings are required only for material events, these contracts likely are carefully negotiated by sophisticated parties who are well-informed about the contract terms. These contracts, therefore, provide evidence of efficient ex ante solutions to contracting problems. The vast majority of contracts did not require arbitration. Only about 11 percent of the contracts included binding arbitration clauses. The rate …

Through The Looking Glass: What A Comparison With The New Polish Legal Framework Of Arbitration Reveals About The U.S. Legal Framework Of Arbitration, Adam J. Sulkowski

ExpressO

In Poland, domestic and international arbitrations are regulated by the Civil Procedure Code. A completely new set of regulations concerning arbitration went into effect in October, 2005. A comparison of the Polish and American legal frameworks of arbitration reveals many similarities and a few key differences. The differences involve the powers of arbitrators to decide upon their own jurisdiction, the arbitrability of employment disputes and the consequences of failure to consider applicable national law. Comparing how similar cases would be resolved under the new Polish standards and U.S. standards raises the question of how U.S. standards evolved and whether they …

Shaffer's Footnote 36, Arístides Díaz-Perosa

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Delhi Development Authority Vs. Manohar Lal & Co., Aparna Meduri

Aparna Meduri

The parties to arbitration who attended the arbitration proceedings cannot subsequently question the authority of their arbitrator and make it a ground for objecting the award rendered by him.

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.

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 …

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.

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 …

Circumventing The Supremacy Clause? Understanding The Constitutional Implications Of The United States' Treatment Of Treaty Obligations Through An Analysis Of The New York Convention, Amber A. Ward

San Diego International Law Journal

The United States participation in treaties and other international agreements is becoming more necessary and an increasingly prevalent occurrence as a result of globalization. The rapid pace of technological innovation and more effective means of transportation have caused our world to shrink, making countries even more interconnected. The corresponding explosion of international business and commercial transactions has resulted in high levels of risk and uncertainty due to a complex mix of laws, monetary factors, politics and cultures that vary across countries. For global players, it has become essential to have international agreements that can mitigate the risks inherent in international …

Reforming Udrp Arbitration: The Suggestions To Eliminate Potential Inefficiency, Soohye Cho

Cornell Law School Inter-University Graduate Student Conference Papers

Even though the Internet has become an integral part of daily life, resolving legal disputes via Internet still remains in the development stage. The legal framework for regulating such Online Dispute Resolution (ODR) has not been established since the Virtual Magistrate Project offered the early ODR program began in 1995. Still, resolving disputes through Internet has been increasing dramatically, especially in the area of Domain Name Disputes. After the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) adopted the Uniform Domain Name Dispute Resolution Policy (UDRP) in 1999 , this procedure has been regarded as the most successful ODR to …

Arbitration Costs And Contingent Fee Contracts, Christopher R. Drahozal

Vanderbilt Law Review

A common criticism of arbitration is that its upfront costs (arbitrators' fees and administrative costs) may preclude consumers and employees from asserting their claims. Some commentators have argued further that arbitration costs undercut the benefits to consumers and employees of contingent fee contracts, which permit the claimants to defer payment of attorneys' fees and litigation expenses until they prevail in the case (and if they do not prevail, avoid such costs altogether). This paper argues that this criticism has it exactly backwards. Rather than arbitration costs interfering with the workings of contingent fee contracts, the contingent fee mechanism provides a …

Secrecy In Context: The Shadowy Life Of Civil Rights Litigation, Minna J. Kotkin

Chicago-Kent Law Review

This article explores how secrecy has come to pervade employment discrimination litigation as a consequence of procedural and substantive changes in the law over the last twenty-five years. In contrast to products liability and toxic tort claims, where secrecy can endanger the public health and safety, secrecy in the discrimination context has a less dramatic impact and thus, has attracted little attention. But when very few discrimination claims end in a public finding of liability, there is a significant cumulative effect, creating the appearance that workplace bias is largely a thing of the past. The trend towards secrecy can be …

Public Courts Versus Private Justice: It's Time To Let Some Sun Shine In On Alternative Dispute Resolution, Laurie Kratky Dore

Chicago-Kent Law Review

In her article, Public Courts versus Private Justice: It's Time to Let Some Sun Shine in on Alternative Dispute Resolution, Professor Laurie Doré explores the divergent attitudes toward confidentiality in litigation and confidentiality in alternative dispute resolution. In adjudicating even seemingly private disputes, a court balances the legitimate need for confidentiality against any countervailing public interest in disclosure. A strong presumption of public access attaches to judicial records and proceedings and good cause must support any protective, sealing, or confidentiality order of a court. Today, however, an increasing number of disputes that would otherwise be litigated before a judge …

Islamic Arbitration: A New Path For Interpreting Islamic Legal Contracts, Charles P. Trumbull

Vanderbilt Law Review

Muslims living in a secular, liberal democratic state face a fundamental dilemma: reconciling the obligation to live according to Shari'a with their civic duty to follow secular laws. Muslims attempt to resolve this dilemma in a number of ways. Some enter public office and try to influence the generally applicable laws of their country. Others advocate greater legal pluralism, thus allowing Muslims to settle certain disputes under Islamic law. In Canada, for example, the Islamic Institute for Civil Justice ("IICJ") announced plans to create Shari'a tribunals and claimed that it would begin arbitrating family and commercial disputes according to Islamic …

Equal Treatment Of Foreign Shareholders In Transnational Securities Class Action Against A Foreign Issuer—A Chinese Example, Clark Yao

ExpressO

As the world economy and financial markets become increasingly more integrated, cross-boarder securities transaction becomes a daily event. Because Unite States has the world’s largest and arguably most liquid capital markets, it has attracted a significant number of foreign companies to cross-list their stocks in a U.S. stock exchange. Unavoidably, such transactions will not only bring out fortune, but also disputes between transacting parties. Relying on the powerful federal securities law , U.S. investors who have bought or sold such stocks have routinely sued foreign stock issuers through class action when the stock prices went down, alleging their loss is …

Is Arbitration Viable In Central America?, Omar E. Garcia-Bolivar

Omar E Garcia-Bolivar

This article lookes at arbitration in Central America as an alternative to a weak rule of law.

Confidentiality In Arbitration: Beyond The Myth, Richard C. Reuben

Faculty Publications

Many people assume that arbitration is private and confidential. But is that assumption accurate? This article is the first to explore that question in the important context of whether arbitration communications can be discovered and admitted into evidence in other legal proceedings - a question that is just beginning to show up in the cases. It first surveys the federal and state statutory and case law, finding that arbitration communications in fact are generally discoverable and admissible. It then considers the normative desirability of discovering and admitting arbitration communications evidence, concluding that the free discovery and admissibility of arbitration communications …

The Effect Of Forum Selection Clauses On A District Court's Power To Compel Arbitration, Thomas V. Burch

Thomas V. Burch

No abstract provided.

Transparency In International Commercial Arbitration, Catherine A. Rogers

Journal Articles

Scholars have long been making the case for expanding transparency in the international commercial arbitration system, but recently these proposals have taken on a greater sense of urgency and an apparent willingness to forcibly impose transparency reforms on unwilling parties. These new transparency advocates exhort the general public's stakehold in many issues being arbitrated, which they contend necessitates transparency reforms, including compulsory publication of international commercial arbitration awards.

In this symposium essay, I begin by developing a definition of transparency in the adjucatory setting, and conceptually distinguishing from other concepts, like "public access" and "disclosure," which are often improperly treated …

A Practioner's Guide: An Overview Of The Major International Arbitration Tribunals, Stefania Bondurant

South Carolina Journal of International Law and Business

No abstract provided.

The Explained Award Of Damocles: Protection Or Peril In Securities Arbitration, Jill I. Gross

Elisabeth Haub School of Law Faculty Publications

NASD's proposed rule change requiring arbitrators to provide written explanations in arbitration awards upon the customers' request (the “explained award proposal”), which was published for public comment in July 2005, is the clearest example of NASD's proposing a rule change in response to investors' complaints. “We have found that investors want to know more about how a panel reaches its decision,” stated NASD Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Robert R. Glauber in announcing the explained award proposal. “By giving investors the option of requiring a written explanation of an arbitration panel's decision, we will increase investor confidence in the fairness …

Blame It On The Bee Gees: The Attack On Trial Lawyers And Civil Justice, Robert S. Peck, John Vail

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

Designer Trials, Elizabeth G. Thornburg

Faculty Journal Articles and Book Chapters

This article considers the intersection of freedom of contract and the trials that have not vanished. Could contracting parties effectively agree in advance of a dispute that any litigation of the case will comply with certain rules? Would such an agreement be enforced even in a contract of adhesion? If so, parties with sufficient bargaining leverage could design away many of the characteristics of litigation that they find unappealing, without the need to resort to private processes. The result: a designer trial with the procedural deck stacked in favor of the party with the greatest pre-dispute bargaining power.

Such a …

An Empirical Analysis Of Ceo Employment Contracts: What Do Top Executives Bargain For?, Randall Thomas, Stewart J. Schwab

Vanderbilt Law School Faculty Publications

In this paper, we examine the key legal characteristics of 375 employment contracts between some of the largest 1500 public corporations and their Chief Executive Officers. We look at the actual language of these contracts, asking whether and in what ways CEO contracts differ from what are thought of as standard employment contract features for other workers. Our data provide some empirical answers to several common assertions or speculations about CEO contracts, and shed light on whether these contracts are negotiated solely to suit the preferences of CEOs or have provisions that insure that the employers' interests are also safeguarded. …

Americans Abroad: International Educational Programs And Tort Liability, Vincent R. Johnson

Faculty Articles

In recent decades, the number of foreign programs operated by American colleges and universities has greatly expanded. Until recently, there were few reported cases involving claims arising from foreign educational ventures. However, the increase in international study abroad programs has been paralleled by an increase in tort claims. Additionally, because of the tendency of tort cases to be settled, the number of unreported cases, based on harm to students participating in study abroad programs, may be considerably larger than what appears in legal research databases.

Given the high cost of potential litigation, a program provider has no choice but to …

Unconscionability Found: A Look At Pre-Dispute Mandatory Arbitration Agreements 10 Years After Doctor's Associates, Inc. V. Casarotto, Sandra F. Gavin

Cleveland State Law Review

This Article first explores the Supreme Court's initially reluctant application of the FAA's contract approach to enforceability of arbitration agreements which lasted well into the early 1980s. It then examines federal preemption of state law and the evolution of the arbitration contract as we know it today. Finally, it looks at the application of defenses that exist “at law or in equity for the revocation of any contract” as applied over the past ten years following the Court's decision in Doctor's Associates, Inc. v. Casarotto. This author examines a decade of decisional law and finds a new doctrine of arbitration …

The Contractarian Model Of Arbitration And Its Implications For Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards, Paul F. Kirgis

Faculty Law Review Articles

Those who favor the current system of virtually unlimited and unreviewable arbitration can forestall change—and even avoid engaging in a sustained policy discussion—by falling back on those defenses. While it is not possible to resolve the policy issues finally, it is possible to assess whether the principle of party autonomy, coupled with applicable legal doctrine, justifies the degree of deference courts have adopted. That is what I attempt in this Article. I argue that, at least in certain classes of cases, the principle of party autonomy requires greater judicial scrutiny of arbitral awards. I argue further that this result is …

Contracting Out Of The Ucc, Sarah Howard Jenkins

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.