In a rare win for consumers, the Fourth Circuit decided that an arbitration agreement that precluded the arbitrator from applying federal or state law to decide disputes arising under the parties’ loan agreement was unenforceable because it precluded application of law. Read Lise Gelernter’s analysis posted on Workplace Prof Blog: http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/2016/02/4th-circuit-on-an-extreme-arbitration-waiver-case.html Hat tip to Rick … Continue reading Interesting Fourth Circuit Decision Precludes Consumer from Waiving Rights Under Federal Law →

Since returning, I’ve received calls from those about to go and questions from others—what are the Cuban people like?  And what do they think of Americans? The official Cuban policy, of course, is that the US policy has been shortsighted and narrow minded.  And the list of US policies that need to change was also outlined … Continue reading Cuba–Do They Like Us? →

Our fellow Indisputably blogger and resident kind soul, Michael Moffitt, has decided to decline a second 5 year term as Dean at Oregon.  His statement is here, but more telling is what Oregon’s provost said: I speak for his fellow deans and everyone in Academic Affairs when I say his leadership of the law school … Continue reading Moffitt Stepping Down as Dean (summer of 2017) →

The AALS ADR Section Executive Committee is pleased to announce that this year’s AALS ADR Section Works-in-Progress will be at Marquette University Law School, on September 22-24, 2016. The Executive Committee decided to award Marquette the WiP without our usual bidding process in honor of the 10th Anniversary of the WiP, and in recognition that … Continue reading AALS ADR Works-in-Progress 2016—at Marquette! →

For the blog today, I thought I would incorporate some of the student reflections about one of our first speakers.  We had a terrific briefing on the economy from Guilio Ricci, an economics professor at the University of Havana. From Max Rabkin: Spending a week in Havana was an eye-opening experience for many reasons. I … Continue reading Cuba–Economic Challenges →

ADR Law Prof extraordinaire Carrie Menkel-Meadow (UC-Irvine / Georgetown) is featured in Mediate.com’s interview series The Mediators: Views from the Eye of the Storm.  Robert Benjamin’s hour and half interview covers a wide range of topics and is quite interesting, but you should expect that from someone who is on the ADR Law Prof Mount … Continue reading Menkel-Meadow Interview on Mediate.com →

Before continuing with any other blog posts about what we learned, I thought it might be useful to discuss what we did not hear about.  Castro.  In short, we had no discussions with any of our speakers about any potential changes to the political system.  No speaker really talked to us about what the government … Continue reading Cuba–What We Did Not Discuss… →