The American Arbitration Association recently released Optional Appellate Arbitration Rules, which aim to provide parties with an opportunity to have appeals of an arbitral award heard within the arbitration process itself. Typically, applications to vacate arbitral...
In a rare setback to the growing arbitration field, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals recently struck down on a 2 to 1 vote Delaware's confidential state-sponsored arbitration program. The Court held that, as with the chancery courts, the public had a First Amendment...
An international crisis appears to lurching towards a resolution, as the Russian government has dropped piracy charges against 30 Greenpeace activists it arrested last month in the Arctic Circle. Instead, Russia will charge the protestors with "hooliganism," which is...
Like other states, Massachusetts has enacted an arbitration statute that provides a streamlined procedure for compelling a party to arbitrate. Section 1 of the Massachusetts Uniform Arbitration Act, G.L. c. 251, recognizes two types of arbitration agreements: (i)...
Mandatory arbitration clauses present in contracts are binding on assignees of those contracts, even where the transfer agreements assigning those contracts do not themselves contain arbitration clauses, the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit has...
In a harshly worded per curiam decision, the U.S. Supreme Court recently reaffirmed the broad reach of the Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") and restated that the FAA "reflects an emphatic federal policy in favor of arbitral dispute resolution." The FAA is the federal...
