|Help

The Third Arbitration Trilogy: Stolt-Nielsen, Rent-a-Center, Concepcion and the Future of American Arbitration - ARIA - Vol. 22 No. 3 2011

Author(s): 
Thomas J. Stipanowich
Page Count: 
112 pages
Published: 
March, 2012

PDF607.29 KB

$40.00
Description: 

Originally from American Review of International Arbitration - ARIA

Preview Page

INTRODUCTION

When it comes to agreements for binding arbitration, this will be remembered
as a time of intense, significant activity by the United States Supreme Court – a
period in which a closely divided Court decided a series of important cases
implicating key issues of law and policy. Legal historians and observers of
arbitration will compare this period with the early 1960s, which saw the
publication of the groundbreaking Steelworkers Trilogy,1 and the mid-1980s,
when a second trio of Court decisions2 ushered in an era of pro-arbitration
jurisprudence characterized by expansive interpretations of the Federal Arbitration
Act (“FAA”).3 Now, for the third time, a triad of key precedents represents a
milestone in the modern history of American arbitration. What is different on this
occasion, however, is the degree of controversy provoked by the Court’s
decisions, and the resultant momentum for countermeasures by other branches of
government.