Here is a link to a recent column in the New York Law Journal explaining that arbitrators are less prone to grant a dispositive motion than judges, suggesting that disputants are more likely to get to a hearing phase in arbitration than in court. Given the Supreme Court’s recent tightening of the pleading and summary judgment … Continue reading Arbitrators grant dispositive motions less often than judges
Professor Susan Franck at Washington and Lee has an interesting new paper about investment treaty arbitration that just hit SSRN. The paper disputes assertions of certain governments (like Bolivia and Ecuador) that suggest the investment treaty process is unfairly tilted against the developing world. In addition it makes a case for using ADR and Dispute … Continue reading Development and Outcomes of Investment Treaty Arbitration
Read Professor Black’s Securities Law Prof Blog posting here.
From p. 72 of the Treasury Department’s Financial Regulatory Reform blueprint (entitled “A New Foundation: Rebuilding Financial Supervision and Regulation”) released today: The SEC should study the use of mandatory arbitration clauses in investor contracts. Broker-dealers generally require their customers to contract at account opening to arbitrate all disputes. Although arbitration may be a reasonable … Continue reading The Obama Administration’s Plan for Securities Arbitration
Today, the United States Supreme Court granted a cert petition in Stolt-Nielsen S.A., et al., v. Animalfeeds International Corp., 548 F.3d 85 (2d Cir. 2008). The Court agreed to decide the question originally presented but ultimately not decided in Green Tree Financial Corp. v. Bazzle, 539 U.S. 444 (2003) — whether imposing class arbitration on parties whose … Continue reading Supreme Court grants cert in another FAA-related case
On Tuesday, NPR’s afternoon news show All Things Considered aired a piece on arbitration. The piece is interesting, but not favorable. It shares several compelling stories – a female Halliburton employee who was raped by co-workers in Iraq and has to arbitrate her claims against the company, the Public Citizen study where consumers lost 94% of the … Continue reading NPR Story on the “Arbitration Debate”
Since her nomination, I have been wondering what impact The Honorable Sonia Sotomayor would have on the law of dispute resolution if she were confirmed as a Supreme Court Justice. While I could find no opinions she authored during her time on the Second Circuit Court of Appeals related to mediation law, I have read … Continue reading Judge Sotomayor and Arbitration Law
Yesterday, the North American Securities Administrators Association (NASAA) announced its full support (see press release here) of the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009, which amends the Federal Arbitration Act to bar enforcement of pre-dispute arbitration clauses in a consumer, employment, franchise and civil rights dispute. NASAA, whose membership consists of the securities administrators in the 50 states … Continue reading NASAA Supports Arbitration Fairness Act
My friend and former co-author, E. Gary Spitko, will be publishing an article offering a critique of the Arbitration Fairness Act in the U.C. Davis Law Review. Gary offers an alternative to the very anti-arbitration stance currently articulated in the proposed Act. Gary’s abstract describes his article as follows: On February 12, 2009, lawmakers in … Continue reading Interesting Take on Arbitration Fairness Act by E. Gary Spitko
Earlier this week, the Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, resolved a circuit split involving the Federal Arbitration Act. In Arthur Andersen LLP v. Carlisle, 2009 WL 1174853 (May 4, 2009), the Court interpreted section 16(a)(1)(A) of the Federal Arbitration Act, which provides a right to interlocutory appeal from “an order … refusing a stay of any action … Continue reading Supreme Court decides appealability under FAA
