Hall Street v. Mattel and “Public Policy”

In one of her blog entries following the Supreme Court’s Hall Street v Mattel decision, Sarah Cole wondered whether the restrictive reading of FAA s10 and s11 left any space for “manifest disregard” and any other judicially-created grounds for arbitral review. Sarah concluded, I think correctly, that manifest disregard appears safe. And as she points … Continue reading Hall Street v. Mattel and “Public Policy”

Dispute Resolution in the Year 2050 (Or Maybe Just 2025)

As the Chair-Elect of the Alternative Dispute Resolution Section of the Association of American Law Schools (AALS), I’m responsible for organizing the Section’s workshop for its annual meeting in January, 2009. I’ve had the good fortune to work with a wonderful group of colleagues (including my fellow bloggers) on this project. We’ve decided on a … Continue reading Dispute Resolution in the Year 2050 (Or Maybe Just 2025)

The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work)

Shameless self-promotion alert! Earlier today, I posted my first draft of an article entitled The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work) I gave a presentation by the same title at Harvard Law School’s Dispute Resolution Forum about six weeks ago, and this draft reflects much of the feedback I … Continue reading The Four Ways to Assure Mediator Quality (and why none of them work)

JAMS Announces a Fellowship Opportunity and a Call for Proposals

Jay Folberg, Executive Director of the JAMS Foundation, recently sent out an announcement about the JAMS-sponsored Weinstein International Fellowship and about the foundation’s call for proposals regarding conflict resolution training for school teachers. Unless I lose another battle with the technology underlying this blog, I will post the announcements below. I believe the information is … Continue reading JAMS Announces a Fellowship Opportunity and a Call for Proposals

Opportunity to Participate in Vaden Amicus Brief

Rick Bales reports on Labor Prof blog at http://lawprofessors.typepad.com/laborprof_blog/2008/03/amicus-opportun.html that: Imre Szalai (California Western) is organizing an amicus brief of law professors to be filed in Vaden v. Discover Bank, 07-773. Vaden presents the issue, as described by SCOTUSBlog, of whether a suit seeking to enforce an arbitration obligation under state law is within the … Continue reading Opportunity to Participate in Vaden Amicus Brief

US News Ranks Law School Dispute Resolution Programs

Although I am not a big believer in the US News ranking system, today, US News released the Dispute Resolution Program rankings, along with their overall law school rankings. You can find the dispute resolution rankings here: http://grad-schools.usnews.rankingsandreviews.com/grad/law/dispute. The rankings are as follows: 1. Pepperdine 2. Harvard, University of Missouri-Columbia 4. Hamline 5. Ohio State … Continue reading US News Ranks Law School Dispute Resolution Programs

Hall Street & “a la carte justice on demand”

In response to Sarah Cole’s initial posting on the Hall Street decision, ohwilleke wrote: The clearest purpose I can see for the ruling is an institutional perogative of the judicial branch which does not want to be compelled to provide a la carte justice on demand.       What’s interesting about the hypothesis ohwilleke offers is that … Continue reading Hall Street & “a la carte justice on demand”