The Associated Press reports: “The private developer of the World Trade Center site threatened Monday to go to an arbitrator unless he and the site’s owner quickly settle a monthslong impasse over how much each should pay to build office towers at ground zero.” How sad to see the terms “arbitrator” and “threaten” in the … Continue reading World Trade Center Developer Threatens Arbitration
A WSJ online article posted here reports that the spike in arbitration filings at FINRA Dispute Resolution is testing recent changes to the process designed to make the forum fairer to investors. The article begins: “Many investors who suffered massive losses in their portfolios are filing complaints against the brokers and brokerage firms that sold them … Continue reading WSJ Asks if FINRA Arbitration is “New and Improved”
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
I was pleasantly surprised to read in my daughter’s sleepaway camp newsletter that the camp spends time each week teaching the girls conflict resolution skills: Tonight, the counselors are putting on the first Creative Service of the summer. Creative Service is a time to pause and reflect on the lessons learned here at camp. Tonight’s … Continue reading Teaching Conflict Resolution Skills Early
The Restorative Justice in Adult Courts Committee of the Missouri Restorative Justice Coalition is sponsoring a symposium on Restorative Justice in Adult Criminal Courts on Friday Nov. 13, 2009, at the University of Missouri-Columbia. During the morning plenary session experts in the field, both academics and practitioners, will present papers on restorative justice in adult courts. The workshops in … Continue reading Restorative Justice Conference in Missouri for Missouri
The ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section has just issued its Call for Proposals for the Section’s annual meeting next April in San Francisco. A copy of the Call for Proposals can be seen here, and the proposal form can be accessed here. As an fyi, priority is given to proposals that introduce new and innovative concepts, … Continue reading Call for Proposals – ABA Dispute Resolution Section Conference
No, that’s not a typo. And no, I am not among the persistent number who treat “arbitration” and “mediation” as coterminous. I mean “Mediation.” And I mean “Separability.” I was reading a recent case — Santana v. Olguin, 208 P.3d 328 (Kan.App., May 29, 2009), and it made me wonder how courts treat mediation provisions … Continue reading Mediation and the Separability Doctrine
North Korea recently sentenced two U.S. journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, to 12 years of hard labor for illegally crossing the North Korean border. By all accounts imprisonment in North Korea, especially in a labor camp, is horrible and potentially life-threatening. The question now is whether their early release can be negotiated. This … Continue reading What are their interests? Negotiating with North Korea
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
I just learned that my University is closing its Ombuds Office, to save resources in these tight times, and instead is spreading out its functions among various related offices (student complaints to Dean of Students Office; employee disputes to Human Resources, etc.). It seems to me that this economically-driven decision clearly undervalues dispute resolution. While those … Continue reading Are Ombuds Offices Expendable?
