Menu
Professor S.I. Strong
Article | Class and Collective Relief in the Cross-Border Context: A Possible Role for the Permanent Court of Arbitration
By Victoria VanBuren - January 31, 2012
Our blog contributor professor S.I.Strong has just published the article “Class and Collective Relief in the Cross-Border Context: A Possible Role for the Permanent Court of Arbitration.” The piece compares the benefits of large-scale litigation and large-scale arbitration in the cross-border context, and considers whether there is a role that the Permanent Court of Arbitration can play in resolving mass disputes of this type. Here is the abstrac
GUEST-POST PART II | No Mass Arbitration in ICSID Cases – The Abaclat Dissent
By Victoria VanBuren - December 12, 2011
By S.I. Strong Some interesting new arguments found their way into the dissenting opinion. For example, the dissent considered how mass claims are treated under various United Nations mass claims processes, claiming that these processes are analogous to ICSID arbitrations. See Award dated October 28, 2011, ¶¶ 176-81. This is an interesting proposition that bears closer analysis, since there are likely a variety of ways that the Permanent Court of
GUEST-POST PART I | No Mass Arbitration in ICSID Cases – The Abaclat Dissent
By Victoria VanBuren - December 9, 2011
By S.I. Strong On October 28, 2011, a dissenting opinion regarding the preliminary decision on jurisdiction and admissibility was issued in the ground-breaking case of Abaclat (formerly Beccara) v. Argentine Republic, ICSID Case No. Arb/07/5 (available here ). The majority award was issued on August 4, 2011 (available here ) and was discussed on this blog here. The majority decision was remarkable in that it constituted the first time that an arb
GUEST-POST PART III: ICSID Accepts First-Ever Class-Type Arbitration
By Victoria VanBuren - August 31, 2011
By S.I. Strong Ultimately, concerns about individual litigation rights did not turn out to be a problem for several reasons. First, the scope of the consent given in the TFA offset any objections from claimants. Second, the homogenous nature of the claims offset any objections from the respondent. Indeed, the tribunal noted that forcing Argentina “to face 60,000 proceedings would be a much bigger challenge to Argentina’s effective defense rights
GUEST-POST PART II: ICSID Accepts First-Ever Class-Type Arbitration
By Victoria VanBuren - August 30, 2011
By S.I. Strong Another aspect of the consent analysis involved the question of whether this sort of mass claim was permitted under the ICSID Convention and the Argentina-Italy BIT. See id. ¶¶ 467-92. This posed an interesting dilemma, given that both documents are silent on the issue of mass proceedings. Perhaps unsurprisingly, the tribunal’s inquiry was reminiscent of the type of analyses that arise in the class arbitration context with respect
GUEST-POST PART I: ICSID Accepts First-Ever Class-Type Arbitration
By Victoria VanBuren - August 29, 2011
By S.I. Strong On August 4, 2011, a preliminary award on jurisdiction was rendered in Abaclat (formerly Beccara) v. Argentine Republic, ICSID Case No. Arb/07/5. The nearly 300-page award, which is available here, addresses a number of concerns, such as whether the dispute falls within the scope of the relevant bilateral investment treaty (BIT) and whether the claims are contractual or treaty-based. Many of these issues are not themselves unique,
GUEST-POST PART III | States’ Rights, Big Business and the Nature of Arbitration: AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion
By Victoria VanBuren - May 26, 2011
By S.I. Strong Interestingly, it is the dissent, rather than the majority, that takes Stolt-Nielsen’s lesson of intent fully into account. Thus, Justice Breyer states that earlier Supreme Court precedent “cautioned against thinking that Congress’ primary objective was to guarantee . . . particular procedural advantages. Rather, that primary objective [of the FAA] was to secure the ‘enforcement’ of agreements to arbitrate.” AT&T, 131 S.
GUEST-POST PART II | States’ Rights, Big Business and the Nature of Arbitration: AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion
By Victoria VanBuren - May 25, 2011
By S.I. Strong In an opinion that was seen as a victory for corporate America, the Supreme Court upheld the waiver on the grounds that the California law was inconsistent with the FAA. As a result, the Concepcions could not initiate class proceedings and were required to have their dispute heard in individual arbitration. On its face, the opinion presents itself as a run-of-the-mill statutory analysis. However, the underlying sense is that the ju
GUEST-POST PART I | States’ Rights, Big Business and the Nature of Arbitration: AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion
By Victoria VanBuren - May 24, 2011
By S.I. Strong AT&T Mobility LLC v. Concepcion, 131 S.Ct. 1740 (2011), always promised to be an interesting case. Not only did the dispute concern class arbitration, one of the most controversial procedural devices to develop in recent years, it did so in a way that set corporate interests squarely against states’ rights. Given that several Supreme Court Justices who are perceived as supporting big business also appear to favor federalist cau
Border Skirmishes: The Intersection Between Litigation and International Commercial Arbitration Symposium Columbia, MO | October 21
By Beth Graham - April 6, 2011
Mark your calendars! On October 21, 2011, the University of Missouri School of Law Center for the Study of Dispute Resolution will host its annual symposium in cooperation with the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb) North American Branch, the University of Missouri International Center and the University of Missouri Transatlantic Center. The symposium, entitled Border Skirmishes: The Intersection Between Litigation and International Comme
Legal Research
Recent Posts
Search
Legal Research
© 2025, Karl Bayer. All rights reserved. Privacy Policy