Dispute Resolution and Arbitration Commons^™

Keep Arbitration Alive: Why The Fairness In Nursing Home Arbitration Act Should Not Be Passed, Margaret Baumer

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

Like it or not, arbitration agreements are part of our lives. Most cell phone and credit card companies include arbitration agreements in their customer contracts. Furthermore, many consumer complaints regarding trades through the National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) are resolved through arbitration. However, despite their pervasiveness, consumers generally remain ignorant of arbitration agreements until a dispute arises, whereupon they discover that they must submit to arbitration proceedings, rather than sue sellers. Often, arbitration carries with it the added disappointment of high fees and perceived arbitrator bias in favor of the business entity. The same is true of a nursing …

Sweet Vindication: The Second Circuit Strikes A Blow To Companies That Use Class-Action Waivers In Arbitration Agreements To Avoid The Law, Samuel E. Buffaloe

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Other scholars and courts have concluded that when a class action waiver prevents a plaintiff from vindicating his statutory rights, that waiver should be unenforceable. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit took this approach in In re American Express Merchants' Litigation. The court, however, was careful to point out that these class-action waivers should not be considered unenforceable per se, but that courts must examine each waiver on a case-by-case basis. This note will examine the court's reasoning and will discuss what courts and Congress should do to protect consumers when companies use class-action waivers to avoid …

Holistic Strategy For Coming To Grips With The Creeping Legalism Of Labor Arbitration, A, Stephen L. Hayford

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The commentary that follows is a call to advocates to take back responsibility for settling the disputes that arise during the life of the collective bargaining agreement by becoming more adept negotiators, able and willing to find and engage the truth and unafraid to lead and make difficult decisions. Only then will the legal machinations and contortions that increasingly plague labor arbitration be rendered unnecessary in most circumstances. I assert that the "creeping legalism" of labor arbitration is a symptom of the too-frequent failure of the contractual grievance procedure to resolve difficult disputes. The conundrum that phenomenon presents can be …

All Bound Up With No Place To Go: A Lack Of Individual Alternatives To Binding Arbitration Provisions For Statutory Claims, Matthew Gierse

Journal of Dispute Resolution

For the greater part of the twentieth century, arbitration has played a large role in resolving disputes between unions representing employees and employers. However, during the past few decades, these employment contracts began to incorporate mandatory arbitration agreements for statutory discrimination claims, with at least one-fifth of all employees presently subject to mandatory arbitration. During this same period, courts began to broaden the ability of employees to waive their right to a judicial forum for statutory claims; Tewolde v. Owens & Minor Distribution is no exception. In 2009, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled for the first time that a union …

Arbitration Nation: While Arbitration Grows, Judicial Review Of Arbitral Awards May Be Shrinking, F. Shabnam Nouraie

Journal of Dispute Resolution

In Sands v. Menard, Inc., the Court of Appeals of Wisconsin upheld an arbitration award reinstating a discharged attorney to her position as in-house counsel. On appeal, the court refused to vacate the reinstatement order, notwithstanding the fact that reinstatement was not requested or desired by either party, the effect of reinstatement was likely to violate the ethical rules that bind attorneys, and other remedies were available to compensate the aggrieved party. This note explores the limited but important role that judicial review plays, and will continue to play, in arbitration and how this role affected the outcome of Sands …

Third Circuit Buyers Beware: District Court In Litman Holds Unconscionability Defense Contravened By Federal Arbitration Act, David C. Winters

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Without even knowing it, just about everyone has agreed to settle disputes through arbitration and has waived any rights to proceed on a class-wide basis. While many consumers do not read the fine print in the agreements they sign, a variety of companies, from cell phone providers to car dealers, have consumers agree in sales contracts to arbitrate any claims and to waive the ability to proceed with a class action claim. This was the scenario in the case of Litman v. Cellco Partnership, in which a New Jersey federal district court held that the plaintiff cell phone customers could …

Child Custody: Don't Worry, A Bet Din Can Get It Right, Jeffrey Haberman

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note aims to explore the reasoning behind the state's reluctance to accept arbitration, including that of the bet din, as a means of resolving child custody disputes. The Note highlights the advantages of arbitration, both in general and when used to determine child custody. The Note examines the arguments proffered by the courts to justify the view that they, and not outside arbitrators, best resolve child custody battles. This Note argues that when two parties agree to arbitrate their divorce settlement before a bet din, the award should be given the same deference as a bet din's resolution of …

The Federal Arbitration Act After Alafabco: A Case Analysis, Benjamin D. Tievsky

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

In late 2009, a divided Supreme Court of Washington held in Satomi Owners Ass'n v. Satomi, L.L.C. that the arbitration provision in a warranty addendum to a sales contract between a condominium developer and an owners' association was enforceable. Specifically, the court held that the provision was within the reach of the Federal Arbitration Act, and that a Washington state statute preserving the parties' right to litigate with regard to the warranty addendum was therefore preempted. This Note will explore the potential importance of this decision for defining the contours of the applicability of the Federal Arbitration Act (at least …

Transcending Cultural Nationalist And Internationalist Tendencies: The Case For Mutually Beneficial Repatriation Agreements, Joshua S. Wolkoff

Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution

This Note will proffer a critical evaluation of the Italian government's current tactics for reclaiming its patrimony and argue that MBRAs are the most desired framework for resolving repatriation disputes, as they give rise to lasting collaborative relationships between source nations and cultural institutions and strive to keep valued works in the "public trust" without diminishing traditionally insular cultural identities. Thus, successful negotiations must account for competing interests including, inter alia: (i) the emotional currency of the object as assessed from the perspective of the source nation; (ii) the institution's desire to keep disputed works within the public sphere; (iii) …

Arbitration's Summer Soldiers Marching Into Fall: Another Look At Eisenberg, Miller, And Sherwin's Empirical Study Of Arbitration Clauses In Consumer And Nonconsumer Contracts, Nancy Kim

Faculty Scholarship

Our empirical study examines the role and importance of arbitration clauses in standard form contracts, primarily with other businesses. While much has been written about the impact of mandatory arbitration clauses in consumer contracts, relatively little has been written on mandatory arbitration clauses in customer agreements where the customer was a business and not an individual consumer. In this Article, we specifically address the findings presented in Theodore Eisenberg, Geoffrey Miller, and Emily Sherwin’s study, Arbitration’s Summer Soldiers: An Empirical Study of Arbitration Clauses in Consumer and Nonconsumer Contracts.1 Our study finds that many businesses employ mandatory arbitration clauses in …

Special 301 And Access To Medicine In The Obama Administration, Sean Flynn

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

I. Introduction

This article examines the history and current use of the Special 301 program to restrict access to generic medicines in developing countries, specifically the 2009 and 2010 reports released under the Obama Administration. The news for access to medicines advocates is not good overall. Both reports continue the previous Administration’s policies of using Special 301 to promote Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (“TRIPS”) policies (“TRIPS-plus”) endangering access to medicines for millions of people worldwide. These policies violate not only the Obama Administration’s pledges to promote access to affordable medications in developing countries, but also U.S. commitments under …

Disputatio: Creeping Legalism As A Declension Myth, Dennis R. Nolan

Journal of Dispute Resolution

The term "creeping legalism," the topic of this symposium, applies to several different developments in labor arbitration. This essay examines each of those developments and explains why that pejorative term misses its mark.

Evolving Schizophrenic Nature Of Labor Arbitration, The, Martin H. Malin

Journal of Dispute Resolution

Commentators have rightly criticized Pyett for its complete disregard of decades of established precedent. In this article, however, I situate the Pyett decision in the context of an ongoing evolution in labor arbitration as that institution has tried to accommodate the intrusion of public law claims into a private system of workplace self-governance. I suggest that labor arbitration has developed a kind of schizophrenic existence, preserving its role as a substitute for strikes and other workplace strife in a private system of self-governance while accommodating an additional role as a substitute for litigation of public law claims. Nevertheless, I find …

Table Of Contents - Issue 1

Journal of Dispute Resolution

No abstract provided.

Fallout From 14 Penn Plaza V. Pyett: Fractured Arbitration Systems In The Unionized Workplace, Ann C. Hodges

Journal of Dispute Resolution

First, the article will review the history of arbitration of statutory employment claims, including the Pyett decision. Second, the article will look at the history and causes of legalism in arbitration. Then the article will consider the probable responses of employers and unions to Pyett. While predictions are necessarily speculative, it is likely that some unionized employers will seek to require employees to arbitrate statutory claims, perhaps in higher percentages than in the nonunion workplace. While unions may, and perhaps should, resist, many future collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) may contain such provisions. The article then discusses the alternative dispute resolution …

Irreconcilable Deferences - The Troubled Marriage Of Judicial Review Standards Under The Steelworkers Trilogy And The Federal Arbitration Act, Michael H. Leroy

Journal of Dispute Resolution

To explore the ramifications of this hybrid, labor-employment discrimination award, I ask what standards would a court apply to review an arbitrator's ruling. The Steelworker's Trilogy-three Supreme Court decisions that explain to courts how to review awards under section 301 of the Labor-Management Relations Act-pronounce deferential standards. But until now, individual employment awards have typically been reviewed under section 10 of the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) or state law equivalents. My research on labor awards and individual employment awards show that courts do not behave the same under these different regimes. They enforce about seventy-two percent of labor awards, but …

Mediation In Employment And Creeping Legalism: Implications For Dispute Systems Design, Lisa Blomgren Bingham, Susan Summers Raines, Timothy Hedeen, Lisa Marie Napoli

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article will explore the question of creeping legalism in mediation of statutory disputes arising out of employment. First, it will briefly review the issue of creeping legalism in arbitration. Second, it will introduce dispute systems design (DSD). Third, it will review the analogous debate on legalism in mediation in three design contexts: evaluative mediation of employment disputes in the court-connected setting, grievance mediation embedded in the collective bargaining agreement, and transformative mediation of employment disputes in the United States Postal Service's (USPS's) REDRESS program. Most employees do not face a choice among mediation models; instead, they choose among adjudicative …

Effect Of Shari'a On The Dispute Resolution Process Set Forth In The Washington Convention, The, Andrew Smolik

Journal of Dispute Resolution

This article will provide an overview of Shari'a law with respect to arbitration. Section I provides an overview of principles of Shari'a and its development. Section II discusses Islamic jurisprudence and the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Section III provides a discussion of the different schools of Islamic jurisprudence. Section IV provides a history of arbitration in the Middle East from the period before Muhammad to today. Section V gives a brief overview of the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention). Sections VI and VI discuss issues regarding choice of …

Mindfulness, Emotions, And Mental Models: Theory That Leads To More Effective Dispute Resolution, Peter Reilly

Faculty Scholarship

At the core of nearly all great negotiators, mediators, lawyers, and leaders is a person who has learned to connect with other people, that is, to build relationships of trust, cooperation, and collaboration. This Article argues that when people learn a sense of "self" and "other" through both theoretical and practical knowledge and understanding of mindfulness and human emotion, connections with others are more likely to be made, and important relationships are more likely to be built.

My goal, then, is to begin thinking about how one might bring mindfulness and emotions from the “mind level” to what human relations …

The New International Arbitration (Amendment) Bill – A Broader Framework For Interim Relief Or Just A Tune-Up?, Mahdev Mohan, Eu-Yen Tay

Research Collection Yong Pung How School Of Law

Singapore aspires to retain its place as a trusted arbitration hub for commercial parties all around the world. The recently proposed amendments to the International Arbitration Act seek to bring Singapore closer to meeting international standards in relation to the arbitration procedure. While the initiative should be applauded, those amendments relating to interim measures fall somewhat short of expectations of a new, broader framework of curial assistance in aid of arbitration. This article explores the uncertainties that could arise from the proposed amendments, either because of phrasing or of an omission to embrace the Model Law. It is hoped that …