Karl Bayer's Disputing Blog

American Review of International Arbitration Article | Understanding (and Misunderstanding) ‘Primary Jurisdiction’

By Victoria VanBuren - August 31, 2010

We thought that you might find interesting Professor Alan Scott Rau’s latest article, Understanding (and Misunderstanding) “Primary Jurisdiction, American Review of International Arbitration (forthcoming). Here is the abstract: In our “Westphalian” regime of international arbitration, conflict and competition between national jurisdictions, with overlapping and yet plausible claims to supervise the process, become inevitable. The conv

GUEST-POST | Professor Alan Scott Rau Comments on Rent-A-Center, West, Inc. v. Jackson

By Victoria VanBuren - June 22, 2010

By Alan Scott Rau One really needs a few days to absorb the importance of cases like this—I know instant punditry is increasingly de rigueur, but I’m quite uneasy with it. Anyway, with that caveat, one could say the following: The doctrinal importance of the case seems swamped by the overwhelming reality that arbitration, at least in adhesion contracts, has become something of a political football: Apparently “to decide that cla

Professor Alan Scott Rau Comments on Dealer Computers v. Old Colony Motors

By Victoria VanBuren - January 4, 2010

by Alan Scott Rau Can this possibly be right? For one thing, I would have thought that ordering the payment of a deposit should be a matter for the court, not the arbitrator: It seems to be a question of whether and how to “order the parties to arbitration in accordance with their agreement” under section 4 of the FAA—-not a question of the “procedure” for the arbitration. What if the respondent is challenging the very existence of an arbitration

American Review of International Arbitration Article | Evidence and Discovery in American Arbitration: The Problem of ‘Third Parties’

By Victoria VanBuren - November 16, 2009

Alan Scott Rau, Professor at The University of Texas School of Law and contributor to this blog, wrote recently an excellent article entitled Evidence and Discovery in American Arbitration: The Problem of ‘Third Parties,’ American Review of International Arbitration, Fall 2009. We invite you to check out Professor Rau’s well-known skillful writing on the evolving issue of arbitral powers to collect evidence from non-parties to a