Originally from Alternatives to the High Cost of Litigation

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The U.S. Supreme Court has demonstrated with increasing frequency over the past 20 years a particular fascination with arbitration. There have been at least 20 Scotus cases in the past decade on arbitration, including three cases in the current term—two in the first week in October.

By contrast, even though there remains far more cases in federal court than in arbitration, and even though personal jurisdiction is both a frequently litigated issue and an evolving concept in our Internet age of virtual “presence,” there have been only three cases expanding on federal jurisdictional issues.

One might think that by this point all that is required to be said from the Supreme Court about arbitration has been said.

But one would be wrong. The Supreme Court’s seeming obsession with arbitration is a mile deep but only an inch wide.