Dear Readers:
Issues raised by the physical presence of Chinese companies in the U.S. are increasingly prominent in U.S. civil litigation. The jurisprudence is important to a number of consituencies, including international arbitrators who, when they sit in New York, may be asked to issue subpoenas under the Federal Arbitration Act to be served at purported [...]
Arbitration lawyers might justifiably have thought, before reading last week’s decision from the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, that any uncertainty about the legal basis for a US court to issue an injunction in regard to a potentially arbitrable dispute had been favorably resolved many years ago. But in finding that a legal basis [...]
Dear Readers:
On my general website you will find a short case comment on the Seventh Circuit’s recent decision, written by Judge Richard Posner, holding that corporations may be civilly liable for damages under the Alien Tort Statute. The decision comes only a few days after the D.C. Circuit so held, in disagreement with the Second [...]
With the decline and perhaps eventual demise of “manifest disregard of the law” after Hall Street Associates v. Mattel, Inc., more attention has been devoted by counsel and the courts to what it means for an arbitrator to “exceed [her] powers” (FAA Section 10 (a) (4)) such that vacatur is warranted of an award made [...]
07.15Doubts Persist About Concepcion’s Bearing on Arbitrability of Federal Statutory Causes of Action
The Supreme Court’s decision in AT&T Mobility v. Concepcion may be narrowly conceived as a decision about pre-emption of State law by the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”). If that view prevails, class arbitration may have continuing vitality, particularly in regard to federal statutory claims.
There are reasons to conceive of Concepcion as a case more about [...]
Dear Readers:
On July 8, 2011 the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit held, in a divided 2-1 panel decision, that Exxon Mobil is not immune from claims of civil damages liability under the Alien Tort Statute for torture and extrajudicial killing allegedly committed at its behest by the Indonesian military forces [...]
Dear Readers:
The U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals today issued its second significant decision under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of the current week. With apologies that I have not yet provided you with synopsis or analysis of the earlier ruling, I invite you to read the account of the decision today, posted to my [...]
As New York’s workforce took flight from offices and cubicles to launch the Independence Day Weekend, the US Second Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan found that there are still a few breaths of life remaining in class arbitration, deciding to reinstate an arbitrator’s award in favor of a proposed employment discrimination class arbitration. (Jock [...]