Contracts Commons^™

In Contracts We Trust (And No One Can Change Their Mind)! There Should Be No Special Treatment For Religious Arbitration, Michael J. Broyde, Alexa J. Windsor

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Alarming Legality Of Security Manipulation Through Shareholder Proposals, Artem M. Joukov, Samantha M. Caspar

Seattle University Law Review

Shareholder proposals attract attention from scholars in finance and economics because they present an opportunity to study both quasidemocratic decision-making at the corporate level and the impact of this decision-making on firm outcomes. These studies capture the effect of various proposals but rarely address whether regulations should allow many of them in the first place due to the possibility of stock price manipulation. Recent changes to shareholder proposal rules, adopted in September 2020, sought to address the potential for exploitation that some proposals create (but ultimately failed to do so). This Article shows the potential for apparently legal stock price …

New Kid On The Block: An Introduction To The Hague Rules On Business And Human Rights Arbitration, Bhavya Mahajan

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In the medieval European states, Lex Mercatoria, literally "Merchant Law," was a prevalent custom, which developed out of the norms and needs of the market and influenced the transborder trade practices among merchants. For redressal of trade-related disputes, arbitration was the popular method and the merchants elected their own judges in the courts of arbitration that they established. These courts developed a reputation for swift resolution of disputes using high moral standards. Non-compliance with practiced norms, or with the arbitral decisions of the courts, would solidify pariah status for the defaulting merchant in the trading community. Gradually, with the …

Applying Mediation To The Complexities Of Surrogacy Agreements, Aude-Mazarine Lestienne

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In the late part of the twentieth century, assisted reproductive technologies ("ART") offered new hope to individuals who were infertile, could not carry a pregnancy, or whose attempts to form non-biological families were rejected. At the same time, advances in ART transformed and strained the traditional notions of family, as well as the legal concepts surrounding it. If utilized for the negotiation of the terms of surrogacy agreements, mediation could provide a creative alternative to time-worn legalistic approaches to solving the problems raised by these complex new family dynamics.

In Contracts We Trust (And No One Can Change Their Mind)! There Should Be No Special Treatment For Religious Arbitration, Michael J. Broyde, Alexa J. Windsor

Faculty Articles

The recent article In God We Trust (Unless We Change Our Mind): How State of Mind Relates to Religious Arbitration ("In God We Trust") proposes that those who sign arbitration agreements that consent to a religious legal system as the basis of the rules of arbitration be allowed to back out of such agreements based on their constitutional right to free exercise. This article is a response and is divided into two sections. In the first section, we show that such an exemption would violate the Federal Arbitration Act's (FAA) basic rules preventing the states from heightened regulation of arbitration …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

As Long As You Love Me: The Effects Of Enforcing Prenuptial Agreements On Intimate Partner Violence, Annie L. Zagha

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Marriage is a sacrament. Marriage is the life-long commitment of one person to another. Marriage is a safely guarded right, a constitutional protection that has been continually reaffirmed to protect the inviolability of unions. But what happens when a marriage fails to live up to its idealized and fantastical notion and begins to develop into a primary source of mental, physical, and emotional pain for an individual? What takes place when marriage is being used as a shield for coercive-and potentially lethal behavior?

Getting Real About Procedure: Changing How We Think, Write And Teach About American Civil Procedure, Suzette M. Malveaux

Publications

No abstract provided.

Arbitration (Tahkim) And Reconciliation (Sulh) In Islam As Alternative Dispute Resolution Mechanisms, Saidilyos Khakimov

The Light of Islam

The main reason behind this work is to illustrate the current need for Islamic alternative dispute resolution methods and offer analysis to show the benefts of their applications. There has been a vivid rise in ADRs’ recognition globally as a substitute for litigation and related issues that would be better if addressed with an Islamic perspective. The wide usage of the term has been intensifed uninterruptedly after the second half of the 20th century. This paper intends to introduce a 1,5-centuryyear-old background of legally institutionalized arbitration
(Tahkim) and reconciliation (Sulh), Islamic means or ways of alternative dispute resolution. I will …

The Rise Of Transnational Commercial Courts: The Astana International Financial Centre Court, Ilias Bantekas

Pace International Law Review

The proliferation of international commercial courts aims to boost income from legal services and serve as a catalyst for newly found rules of law and thus attract investor confidence. The latter is the underlying purpose for the creation of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC) and its Court. The Court’s legal framework is set out in the tradition of its competitors in the Gulf and similarly employs an impressive lineup of former senior judges from the United Kingdom. It is a unique experiment because it strives to create a balance between maintaining a judicial institution of the highest caliber while …

Unwaivable: Public Enforcement Claims And Mandatory Arbitration, Myriam E. Gilles, Gary Friedman

Articles

This essay, written for a conference on the “pathways and hurdles” that lie ahead in consumer litigation, is the first to examine the implications of California’s recent jurisprudence holding public enforcement claims unwaivable in standard-form contracts of adhesion, and the inevitable clash with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decisional law interpreting the Federal Arbitration Act. With its rich history of rebuffing efforts to deprive citizens of public rights through private contract, California provides an ideal laboratory for exploring this escalating conflict.

Dispute Settlement Under The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement: A Preliminary Assessment, Olabisi D. Akinkugbe

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

The African Continental Free Trade Area Agreement (AfCFTA) will add a new dispute settlement system to the plethora of judicial mechanisms designed to resolve trade disputes in Africa. Against the discontent of Member States and limited impact the existing highly legalized trade dispute settlement mechanisms have had on regional economic integration in Africa, this paper undertakes a preliminary assessment of the AfCFTA Dispute Settlement Mechanism (DSM). In particular, the paper situates the AfCFTA-DSM in the overall discontent and unsupportive practices of African States with highly legalized dispute settlement systems and similar WTO-Styled DSMs among other shortcomings. Notwithstanding the transplantation of …

Arbitration Waiver And Prejudice, Timothy Leake

Michigan Law Review

Arbitration agreements are common in commercial and consumer contracts. But two parties can litigate an arbitrable dispute in court if neither party seeks arbitration. That presents a problem if one party changes its mind and invokes its arbitration rights months or years after the lawsuit was filed and substantial litigation activity has taken place. Federal and state courts agree that a party can waive its arbitration rights by engaging in sufficient litigation activity without seeking arbitration, but they take different approaches to deciding how much litigation is too much. Two basic methods exist. Some courts say waiver requires the party …

Law And Covid-19, Aurelio Gurrea-Martinez, Yihan Goh, Mark Findlay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

This book is a collection of essays from scholars at Singapore Management University School of Law analysing the challenges and implications of COVID-19 from the perspective of different areas of law, including private law, corporate law, insolvency law, data protection, financial laws, public law, privacy law, commercial law, constitutional law, law and technology, and dispute resolution. It also analyses how the COVID-19 pandemic will affect the judicial system, the study of law, and the future of the legal profession. Beyond considerations of the pandemic’s influence on law and legal service delivery the authors consider how law can help facilitate the …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Making Employment Arbitration Fair And Accessible, Theodore J. St. Antoine

Articles

Mandatory arbitration agreements require employees, as a condition of employment, to agree to arbitrate all employment disputes instead of filing court suits. The Supreme Court has approved such agreements but many labor experts oppose them. The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a bill to prohibit pre-dispute agreements, the common form for mandatory arbitrations. This article argues that the House bill would have the practical effect of virtually eliminating employment arbitration. Instead, proposals are presented for either legislative or judicial steps to ensure that employment arbitration is fair and accessible. Requirements would include: (1) voluntary agreements on the part of …

Law In The Time Of Covid-19, Katharina Pistor

Faculty Books

The COVID-19 crisis has ended and upended lives around the globe. In addition to killing over 160,000 people, more than 35,000 in the United States alone, its secondary effects have been as devastating. These secondary effects pose fundamental challenges to the rules that govern our social, political, and economic lives. These rules are the domain of lawyers. Law in the Time of COVID-19 is the product of a joint effort by members of the faculty of Columbia Law School and several law professors from other schools.

This volume offers guidance for thinking about some the most pressing legal issues the …

Revisiting The Enforceability Of Online Contracts: The Need For Unambiguous Assent To Inconspicuous Terms, Tom Mozingo

Seattle University Law Review

In determining the enforceability of online contracts, namely those formed from the use of smartphone applications, courts typically look to whether the contract terms were reasonably conspicuous or communicated to the consumer. With the rise of “browse-wrap” contracts, where terms are not directly communicated to the consumer or where the consumer is not required to click the equivalent of an “I agree” button clearly manifesting assent to the terms, courts have inconsistently applied the reasonable communicativeness standard to the detriment of consumers and application developers alike. This Comment will explore the development of browse-wrap contracting jurisprudence and the need to …

Table Of Contents, Seattle University Law Review

Seattle University Law Review

Table of Contents

Arbitration Of Worker Contracts: New Prime's Proper Statutory Interpretation Of The 1925 Federal Arbitration Act, Margaret L. Moses

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This article will discuss how, in a future case, if the Court applied the reasoning of its unanimous opinion in New Prime-that the language of the statute should be interpreted consistent with the meaning it had to the Congress that adopted it-no worker would be covered by the FAA. Part I will consider the scope of the Commerce Clause, and the expansion in the Court's understanding of Congress' power under the Clause that occurred post-1925. In Part II, the article will deal with the purpose of the FAA as understood at the time of its adoption, as well as …

“Breaking Up Is Hard To Do”: Conceptualizing The Artist-Manager Relationship As A Marriage For Purposes Of Alternative Dispute Resolution, Gillian Sloane

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

The problem is not that the artist-manager relationship is a highly personal one. The problem is, that due to the present state of the music industry and current legislation, the nature of the relationship is given no weight when disputes between the parties occur. The constraining designation of the artist-manager relationship and ineffective legal remedies provided when disputes arise, negatively affect the viability of the relationship and essentially guarantee dissolution of the relationship.

This Note addresses that problem. Instituting different forms of alternative dispute resolution ("ADR") processes, commonly applied in divorce and family law, at different stages of the artistmanager …

Rhode Island Council On Postsecondary Education V.Hellenic Society Paideia – Rhode Island Chapter, 202 A.3d 931(R.I. 2019), Jeffery Rankel

Roger Williams University Law Review

No abstract provided.

Cullinane V. Uber Technologies, Inc., Carly Schreiber

NYLS Law Review

No abstract provided.

New Prime Inc. V. Oliveira: Putting The Wheels Back On The Faa’S Section 1 Exemption For Transportation Workers, Reed C. Trechter

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

How A Good Idea Became A Bad Idea: Universities And The Use Of Non-Disclosure Agreements In Terminations For Sexual Misconduct, Julie Macfarlane

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

One of the challenges that face every third-party intervenor in a conflict is what the parties shall agree about the public nature of an agreed outcome. In private dispute resolution, in contrast to adjudication by courts, there is neither a requirement nor (with a few exceptions) a legal compulsion to reveal those outcomes, if one or more parties prefer to keep the matter private.

The Ongoing Speculation About Smart Contracts: Smart Enough To Replace Third Party Arbitrators, Or Is "Smart" Just A Misnomer?, Rakhil Kalantarova

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Although there is unmatched publicity about blockchain all over the world, the purpose of this Note is to provide a narrower insight into the fundamental importance of blockchain to the evolution of smart contracts. It will also introduce a proposition that oracles should be granted the authority to serve as arbitrators in mandatory Online Dispute Resolution ("ODR") and advise a step-by-step process to achieve that end. Section II of this Note will explore the background information and intricacies of blockchain technology, along with the realm of the purposes of smart contracts. It will also attempt to explain the benefits of …

Federalizing Contract Law, Stephen A. Plass

Lewis & Clark Law Review

Contract law is generally understood as state common law, supplemented by the Second Restatement of Contracts and Article 2 of the Uniform Commercial Code. It is regarded as an expression of personal liberty, anchored in the bargain and consideration model of the 19th century or classical period. However, for some time now, non-bargained or adhesion contracts have been the norm, and increasingly, the adjudication of legal rights and contractual remedies is controlled by privately determined arbitration rules. The widespread adoption of arbitral adjudication by businesses has been enthusiastically endorsed by the Supreme Court as consonant with the Federal Arbitration Act …

Mechanisms For Consultation And Free, Prior And Informed Consent In The Negotiation Of Investment Contracts, Sam Szoke-Burke, Kaitlin Cordes

Northwestern Journal of International Law & Business

Investor-state contracts are regularly used in low- and middle-income countries to grant concessions for land-based and natural resource investments, such as agricultural, extractive industry, forestry, or renewable energy projects. These contracts are rarely negotiated in the presence of, or with meaningful input from, the people who risk being adversely affected by the project. This practice will usually risk violating requirements for meaningful consultation, and, where applicable, free, prior and informed consent (FPIC), and is particularly concerning when the investor-state contract gives the investor company rights to lands or resources over which local communities have legitimate claims.

This article explores how …

In Memory Of Professor James E. Bond, Janet Ainsworth

Seattle University Law Review

Janet Ainsworth, Professor of Law at Seattle University School of Law: In Memory of Professor James E. Bond.

The State Qui Tam To Enforce Employment Law, Andrew Elmore

Faculty Scholarship

This Article examines the states' response to Epic Systems v. Lewis, which held enforceable under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) mandatory arbitration agreements that require employees to waive their participation in collective and class actions in employment contracts. Recent evidence shows that mandatory arbitration can erode access to justice for and deterrence of employment law claims. States in response are considering qui tam statutes, which assign the state interests in penalties for employment law violations to private enforcers in return for a bounty, to substitute for the loss of class action enforcement after Epic Systems.

These statutes can …