Marc J. Goldstein Arbitrator & Mediator NYC

Recent Posts

July 15, 2011

Doubts 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 limitations on State power in arbitration and less about the problematic features of class arbitration.   Indeed, the question presented for decision in Concepcion, as stated by Justice Scalia in the majority opinion, was “[w] hether the FAA prohibits States from conditioning the enforceability…
Read More »

July 13, 2011

Appeals Court Decisions in Conflict Over Corporate Liability for Human Rights Abuses

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 against civilian tribesmen in Indonesia.  The outcome on the issue of ATS liability of corporations is the opposite of that reached last year by a  divided panel in the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals. An analysis of one of the key issues in…
Read More »

July 07, 2011

PRC Immune From Execution Without Entering Appearance, Second Circuit Rules

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 general website. www.lexmarc.us Warm regards. Marc Goldstein

July 05, 2011

Another Sign of Life for Class Arbitration: The Second Circuit Reinstates a Case

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 v. Sterling Jewelers, Inc., 2011 WL 2609853 (2d Cir. July 1, 2011)). The award at issue addressed only whether the arbitration clause permitted a class arbitration, and not whether the proposed class should be certified. The panel majority in the Second Circuit rejected the District…
Read More »

June 29, 2011

A Significant Second Circuit Ruling on RICO Civil Liability

Dear Readers: On my general website today, I report on a very significant Second Circuit decision concerning civil liability under the RICO (federal racketeering) statute. The case has already once been to the U.S. Supreme Court, and a petition for certiorari from this further decision can be expected.  My report is found under Legal Developments at www.lexmarc.us National holiday greetings to U.S. and Canadian readers. Marc

June 28, 2011

Some Vitality Remains for Class Arbitration After Concepcion

Class arbitration in the US may have some remaining vitality, under arbitration agreements made before the recent Concepcion decision and which do not include express class action waivers. A recent decision from a federal district judge in San Francisco indicates this, as the Court held that it was for the arbitrators to decide whether the language of the arbitration clauses at issue permits classwide arbitration. (Hayes v. Servicemaster Global Holdings, Inc., 2011 WL 2471001 (N.D. Cal. June 22, 2011). After sorting through the Supreme Court’s decisions in Bazzle, Stolt-Nielsen, and (by implication) Concepcion, this Court concluded that there were legitimate…
Read More »