American Bar Association’s International Law Section Criticizes the ABA Dispute Resolution Section’s Subcommittee Draft on Arbitrator Disclosure Guidelines It has been interesting to watch the strong reaction to the draft disclosure guidelines and checklist for arbitrators proposed by the Disclosure Subcommittee of the Arbitration Committee of the ABA’s Dispute Resolution Section. Over the last two…

Two weeks ago, an LCIA tribunal issued its Award on Remedies in a dispute filed by the U.S. against Canada under the 2006 Softwood Lumber Agreement (SLA). This dispute is interesting in many respects. Most obviously, it is a state-to-state dispute adjudicated under the auspices of the LCIA, more commonly used for commercial arbitration. This…

The U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision in Hall Street Associates, L.L.C. v. Mattel, Inc., 128 S. Ct. 1369 (2008) has provoked substantial commentary – as with many Supreme Court decisions regarding arbitration. The Hall Street decision held that the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) did not permit parties contractually to expand the grounds for vacating or…

Last week I attended a wonderful conference at Pepperdine Law School on international sports arbitrations administered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). It is a remarkably sophisticated regime that deserves far greater attention than it typically receives by the international arbitration community. Under the CAS Rules, all CAS tribunals have their seat in…

Just over one week ago, two pieces of anti-arbitration legislation – the Arbitration Fairness Act of 2009 (H. R. 1020) and the Consumer Fairness Act of 2009 (H. R. 991) – were formally introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives. Both acts would limit the ability to arbitrate consumer disputes, and the Arbitration Fairness Act…

Questions regarding the future of the FAA are no longer of passing concern. With a Democratic President and a Democratic Congress, there is a significant likelihood that some version of the proposed “Arbitration Fairness Act” will become law. As one prominent academic said to me this weekend, “The worst part about Obama getting elected is…

The American Society of International Law is pleased to join a number of organizations and institutions contributing to this on-line discussion of current issues in international arbitration. We have long provided a forum for the international arbitration community to come together and share ideas-in print, at our meetings, or on line-and we consider this new…