Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Seeking Recognition And Enforcement Of Foreign Court Judgments And Arbitral Awards In Egypt And The Mashriq Countries, Nicolas Bremer

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Asserting a claim in an international transaction is often complex. If a transaction involves parties from different countries, the venue of dispute resolution will often be in a jurisdiction different from that where enforcement may have to be sought. In such a case, any ruling obtained will have to be recognized by the competent authority of the country where enforcement is sought (known as requested country). Obtaining recognition of a foreign ruling in the Middle East and North Africa is considerably challenging. Despite some progress having been made over the last decade, local courts are still rather reserved towards foreign …

One Idea For Ameliorating Polarization: Reviving Conversations About An American Spirit, Nancy H. Rogers

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Historian David McCullough tells those discouraged about the nation’s current problems that Americans have an “inexhaustible source of strength”: “our story, our history, who we are, how we got to where we are, … all we have been through, what we have achieved” and our “national ambitions.” McCullough calls this the “American spirit” and urges Americans to articulate a current version. Some might express pessimism about this project – after all, one poll indicates that most Americans think we are losing an American spirit. Other commentators agree with McCullough, though, that Americans should endeavor to identify an American spirit that …

State Legislative Update, Ryan Corrigan, Samantha Groark, Alison Matusofsky, John Roark, Joshua Sieg

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Vatican Mediation And The Venezuelan Crisis, Emma Altheide

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Part II will discuss the dispute between Argentina and Chile in the 1970s concerning property rights in the Beagle Channel, as well as the restoration of diplomatic relations between the United States and Cuba in 2015. Part III will outline the events leading to the crisis in Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro has brought the government to the brink of authoritarian rule. This section will assess the Vatican’s offer to mediate in Venezuela in light of the country’s current climate and previous instances of Vatican mediation. Part IV will examine the Vatican as a mediator, analyzing the attributes that may …

Living With No: Political Polarization And Transformative Dialogue, Erik Cleven, Robert A. Baruch Bush, Judith A. Saul

Journal of Dispute Resolution

We argue that dispute resolution processes should not be seen as a substitute for the political process, but rather a complement that can help strengthen it. Based on this view, and on the authors’ experience with dialogue work in the former Yugoslavia, as well as in urban and rural settings in the United States, we argue that transformative processes, specifically an approach we call Transformative Dialogue, are best suited to addressing the challenges of political polarization both in the United States and internationally. This is because the primary goal of transformative processes is not to reach agreement or find common …

Why We Can’T “Just All Get Along”: Dysfunction In The Polity And Conflict Resolution And What We Might Do About It, Carrie Menkel-Meadow

Journal of Dispute Resolution

These are very troubled times. The polity is seriously divided; people who march for white supremacy and hate are called “nice and very good people” by an unhinged, but Constitutionally elected, President; relations between citizens of color and police are at a high level of hostility and distrust; Congress is unable to pass virtually any legislation; and policy differences over immigration, trade, taxation, and health care are so great that even a ruling party cannot get anything done. Perhaps the greatest challenge for our democracy now is learning how to deal with great value differences in the polity, enough so …

Value And Judgment In Investment Treaty Arbitration, Frederic Gilles Sourgens

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Are international treaties consenting to the resolution of disputes between foreign investors and the host states to their investment still a good idea? Recent and not so recent criticism of such treaty provisions calls into question whether investor-state tribunals can act as neutral arbiters of such disputes. This criticism argues that tribunals are biased in favor of the business interests of investors—and therefore disfavor the state’s right to regulate. Responses to this criticism frequently have alleged the opposite: The arbitral tribunals constituted under international treaties are, if anything, too friendly towards the interests of states. They fail to protect the …

Inherently Unneutral Investment Treaty Arbitration: The Formation Of Decisive Arguments In Jurisdictional Determinations, Relja Radovic

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The legitimacy crisis of investment treaty arbitration is much discussed, often challenging the neutrality of that system as a whole. Besides concentrating on the direction in which cases are being decided, or in which the law is being interpreted, the neutrality of investment treaty arbitration as a system can also be discussed from the perspective of its foundations. This article looks at the arbitral use of the two basic ideals of investment treaty arbitration, namely the legalistic and teleological notions, in the formation of decisive arguments, in the particular context of jurisdictional decisions. It examines to what extent the two …

The Blurring Of The Public/Private Distinction Or The Collapse Of A Category? The Story Of Investment Arbitration, Guillermo J. Garcia Sanchez

Faculty Scholarship

The paper is a response piece to Deborah Hensler and Damira Khatam’s new article, Re-inventing Arbitration: How Expanding the Scope of Arbitration Is Re-Shaping Its Form and Blurring the Line Between Private and Public Adjudication. Their main argument regarding the public-private distinction is that the arbitral procedure has changed as a consequence of the substantive issues resolved in this particular ADR system. According to them the arbitral system, which was originally conceived for commercial purposes, has become another way of litigating public law, but without the accountability mechanisms attached to public courts. In this paper, I agree in large part …

An Introduction To The Singapore Convention On Mediation: Perspectives From Singapore, Nadja Alexander, Shou Yu Chong

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

At the 51st Session of the United Nations (UN) Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) on 25th June 2018, the final draft of the Convention on the Enforcement of International Settlement Agreements (the ‘Convention’) was recommended for submission to the UN General Assembly for its consideration, and the corresponding Model Law was adopted. A resolution to name the Convention the ‘Singapore Convention on Mediation’ was also approved. This concluded three years of vigorous debate in UNCITRAL Working Group II (Dispute Settlement) with participation by 85 member States and 35 international governmental and non-governmental organisations. The UN General Assembly has adopted …

Deferred Prosecution Agreements In Singapore?, Eunice Chua

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

On 15 January 2018, Minister for Law and Home Affairs K Shanmugam said at a dialogue organised by the Law Society that deferred prosecution agreements (DPAs) could be introduced in Singapore as part of proposed changes to the criminal justice system. DPAs are agreements by the prosecutor to suspend prosecution of a corporate entity if it complies with specific conditions. If the corporation fails to comply with the conditions, the prosecution may resume. This post examines the case for and against DPAs and explores the issues they may present in the Singapore context.

Independence And Impartiality Of Arbitrators: A Rule Of Law Analysis, Stefanie Schacherer

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Investor-State dispute settlement (ISDS) through arbitration remains in a state of legitimacy crisis and discussions on reform are ongoing. Much of the criticism is focussed on who is deciding investment dispute cases. Investment arbitrators have been called “private judges” who operate in secrecy, are biased in favour of big multinational companies and have no regard for conflicts of interest. The course of the negotiations on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership between the European Union (EU) and the United States, highlighted to what extent ISDS through arbitration is perceived as unfair and biased (at least in Europe). As a reaction …

Celebrating Mundane Conflict, Deborah J. Cantrell

Publications

This Article interrogates the dominant conception of conflict and challenges the narrative of conflict as hard, difficult and painful to engage. The Article reveals two primary framing errors that cause one to misperceive how ubiquitous and ordinary is conflict. The first error is to misperceive conflict as categorical — something either is a conflict or it is not. People make that error as a way of trying to avoid conflict. People falsely hope that there might be a category of “not conflict,” like disagreements, that will be easier to navigate. The second error is to misperceive the world and individuals …

Achieving Substantive Justice In Mediation Through Procedural Justice: An Illusory Or Realizable Goal?, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Mediation has been plagued with a problem of legitimacy. Genn stated that mediation “does not contribute to substantive justice because mediation requires the parties to relinquish ideas of legal rights during mediation and focus, instead, on problem-solving”. Mediation appears to be all about procedural justice, a concept that is associated with perceptions of fair treatment. And procedural justice does not seem to have any discernible link with substantive justice, in terms of giving effect to well-accepted norms.This blog entry is drawn from a paper that was presented at the Australasian Dispute Resolution Research Network 6th Annual Roundtable and the LSAANZ …

Defining The Limits To Abuse Of Process: Lim Geok Lin Andy V Yap Jin Meng Bryan, Dorcas Quek Anderson

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

The abuse of process jurisdiction, which forms part of the doctrine of res judicata, is meant to uphold finality of litigation and prevent abusive litigation. While the jurisdiction has been applied to the original parties of earlier court proceedings, it could also prevent a person who was not part of earlier court proceedings from litigating his claim. In such circumstances, the abuse of process doctrine has to be cognisant of the commercial realities and motivations driving choices to advance separate rather than consolidated proceedings, while also protecting litigants from repeated litigation. A recent Singapore Court of Appeal decision imposed constraints …

Cross-Examination In International Arbitration: A Clash Among Common Law Traditions, Robert H. Smit

Faculty Scholarship

Cross-examination, like it or not, has become a regular feature of international arbitration. As with other procedural cross-roads converging upon international arbitration from different legal traditions, cross-examination invites controversy and debate. This tends to focus on the procedural differences between civil-law “inquisitorial” and common-law “adversarial” systems, and how they inform the (un)desirability of cross-examination, or the need to modify it, in international arbitration. Less explored is how the practice of cross-examination differs in different common-law jurisdictions, including between prominent arbitral seats in the United States and England, Hong Kong and Singapore among others, and how those differences inform the approach …

What Does It Mean To Be ‘Pro-Arbitration’?, George A. Bermann

Faculty Scholarship

International arbitration commentators commonly ask of a proposed policy or practice whether it is ‘pro-’ or ‘anti-arbitration’. Framing the question that way presupposes a shared understanding of what does or does not make a policy or practice arbitration-friendly. In truth, the ways in which policies or practices may affect international arbitration’s well-being are manifold. They may even distinctly serve international arbitration’s well-being in some respects while equally distinctly disserving it in others. It behooves those who take international; arbitration’s well-being seriously to acknowledge the multiplicity of metrics for identifying what is ‘pro-’ and what is ‘anti-arbitration’ and to seek the …

Adr And Access To Justice: Current Perspectives, Ellen E. Deason, Michael Z. Green, Donna Shestowsky, Rory Van Loo, Ellen Waldman

Faculty Scholarship

Access to justice is a broad topic, and we cannot cover everything. You will notice a few major omissions. Most notably, we are not going to emphasize consumer pre-dispute arbitration agreements. This is not because they are not important, but because much has been written and said on this topic, and it could easily swallow the whole discussion. Also, we are probably not going to say very much about restorative justice, and I am sure you will notice some other holes. We invite you to raise missing issues in your comments.

Let me start with a few opening remarks. We …

A Review Of Nevada Patron Dispute Decisions, Mark Lerner, Emily Cunningham

UNLV Gaming Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Mosten And Scully’S New Book On Unbundled Legal Services, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post discusses Forrest (Woody) Mosten and Elizabeth Potter Scully’s book, Unbundled Legal Services: A Family Lawyer’s Guide. Unbundling involves providing specified services to legal clients rather than “full service” representation. Unbundling is particularly helpful in family matters because parties generally understand the issues and may represent themselves well if they have some legal help. Many family courts are overwhelmed with large numbers of cases involving self-represented litigants, so providing unbundled legal services can make a significant contribution to the legal system. In virtually all types of cases, some people have the interests in unbundling, not just family matters.

Takeaways From New Hampshire Mediation Training, John M. Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post highlights some key findings from survey data and focus-group-like comments from court mediation training for the training participants as well as readers of this blog.

Stone Soup: Learning How People Actually Prepare For Negotiation And Mediation, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This post suggests questions in Stone Soup interviews that students can ask lawyers and mediators about how they prepare for negotiation and mediation.

Letter To Kelly, John Lande

Faculty Blogs

This is a letter I wrote to someone who was about to start law school. I advised keeping focused on their goals and how best to achieve them. I cautioned about portrayals of lawyers on TV and in the movies. I warned about the “hidden curriculum” which creates misimpressions by focusing on appellate cases. I encouraged them to remember what it is like to be a “normal” person, a perspective they may forget after being initiated in the legal tribe. I advised trying to see the world through others’ eyes.

What A Contract Has Joined Together Let No Court Cast Asunder: Abolishing Separability And Codifying The Scope Of The Provisions Of Arbitration Agreements, Taylor Payne, Richard Bales

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Tale Of Two Trade Powers: Balancing Investor-State Dispute Settlement And Environmental Risk Between The European Union And United States In A Changing Political Climate, Sarah Ben-Moussa

Fordham Environmental Law Review

No abstract provided.

Vicarious Liability, Non-Delegable Duty And The Ng Huat Seng Decision, Kee Yang Low

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

In recent times, courts in Singapore and elsewhere have been grappling with the issue of delegability of duty of care. In the process, they have vigorously defended the conventional position that a duty of care is, in general, delegable. Accordingly, attempts at broadening the ambit of vicarious liability and non-delegable duty, respectively, have been carefully scrutinized. The recent Singapore Court of Appeal decision of Ng Huat Seng v Munib Mohammad Madni adds to the judicial thinking on this complicated and controversial subject.

International Investment Arbitration In Laos: Large Issues For A Small State, Romesh Weeramantry, Mahdev Mohan

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Laos is no stranger to international investment arbitration. Despite its status as one of Southeast Asia's least developed countries, it has had an Investment Law for more than two decades and is also a party to several bilateral and Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN)-related investment agreements. More recently, two investment treaty claims have been made against it, one of which has given rise to an award challenge that went all the way to Singapore's highest court. This article will examine the history, evolution and current iteration of Laos' relationship with international investment law and focus on the two …

Court-Connected Alternative Dispute Resolution In Maine, Howard H. Dana Jr.

Maine Law Review

With these words of prophecy the Commission to Study the Future of Maine's Courts launched its discussion of alternative dispute resolution (ADR). Although conceding that “the adversary process ... has served the people of the state well” and acknowledging that “the state must continue to provide a forum for forceful advocacy that produces a definite and binding judicial decision” the Commission asked the Maine judicial and legislative branches to embrace ADR. For the last dozen years, the Author has been the Supreme Judicial Court's (SJC's) liaison to its ADR Planning and Implementation Committee and Chair of the Court's Advisory Committee …

Third-Party Funding In International Arbitration, Victoria Sahani

Shorter Faculty Works

Third-party funding, also known as litigation funding, is a financing method in which an entity that is not a party to a particular dispute funds another party’s legal fees or pays an order, award, or judgment rendered against that party, or both. Third-party funding is a growing phenomenon that is becoming more mainstream in both the litigation and the international arbitration communities. The leading jurisdictions worldwide — in terms of volume and sophistication of third-party funding arrangements — are Australia, the U.K., the U.S. and Germany. In the past, third-party funding was a smaller niche market, but in recent years, …

Prompting Deliberation About Nanotechnology: Information, Instruction, And Discussion Effects On Individual Engagement And Knowledge, Lisa M. Pytlikzillig, Myiah J. Hutchens, Peter Muhlberger, Alan Tomkins

Lisa PytlikZillig Publications

Deliberative (and educational) theories typically predict knowledge gains will be enhanced by information structure and discussion. In two studies, we experimentally manipulated key features of deliberative public engagement (information, instructions, and discussion) and measured impacts on cognitive-affective engagement and knowledge about nanotechnology. We also examined the direct and moderating impacts of individual differences in need for cognition and gender. Findings indicated little impact of information (organized by topic or by pro-con relevance). Instructions (prompts to think critically) decreased engagement in Study 1, and increased it in Study 2, but did not impact postknowledge. Group discussion had strong positive benefits for …