The Red Velvet Lawyer

Arbitrators and "Reasoned Awards" -  Smarter Tools, Inc. v. Chongqing SENCI Import & Export Trade Co Commentary and analysis from Professor SI Strong, University of Missouri School of Law: One of my students called the following case - Smarter Tools, Inc. v. Chongqing SENCI Import & Export Trade Co ., 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 50633 (S.D.N.Y. Mar. 26, 2019) – to my attention, and I thought some of you might be interested in it as well (I don’t believe I’ve seen it circulated here yet).   The issue involved whether the arbitral award was sufficiently reasoned.   According to the court, reasoned awards are not required in arbitration, but if the parties contract for such an award, as they did here, they are entitled to receive such a document.   Upon review, the court found that the arbitrator in this case provided the parties a "barely colorable justification" for his decision, leading the court to hold that the award did not meet the ne...

More Modern Arbitration Laws for the Arab Gulf GAR reports that the United Arab Emirates has issued its long-awaited self-standing arbitration law, based on the UNCITRAL Model Law.  The Arabic version of the the law is found  here .  In this post, I am reproducing the GAR story with a few edits. His Highness Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the president of the UAE, issued Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 yesterday, after it was approved by his cabinet of ministers in February. It repeals and replaces the previous UAE arbitration law, contained within a chapter of the UAE Civil Procedures Law No. 11 of 1992. The new law will apply to all arbitral proceedings, including both domestic and international proceedings.  Its 61 articles include: articulation of the principles of separability and competence-competence;  power for arbitral tribunals and courts to order interim and conservatory measures relating to ongoing or potential arbitrations, with no...

Back in the Middle with You:  Re-Joining my U.S. ADR Tribe In early April 2016, after a gap of several years, I finally joined an old tribe of ADR scholars, trainers, and practitioners at the annual conference, this year in New York, sponsored by the American Bar Association’s Section of Dispute Resolution . This ABA tribe claims my heart. These are great folks doing interesting and world-altering work. I love being among them. In my last post , I talked about several new tribes that reflect my transition to a new life in Doha, Qatar as a law professor. My new Arabian Gulf ADR tribes are important to my desire to scale-up my ADR practice and training. Yet, the anchor for my work has always been my old ABA tribe. I have tried to serve it in several ways: Member, Standing Committee on Ethical Guidance for Mediators (2006-2011). Co-Chair, Mediator Ethical Opinions Database Sub-Committee of the Standing Committee on Ethical Guidance for Mediators ...

The Appalachian School of Law is the first, and so far, the only law school founded with a focus on Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR). ASL’s dispute resolution curriculum is unique in several ways. Students get advanced training in negotiation mediation, arbitration, early neutral evaluation, group facilitation, consensus building, and dispute resolution system design. 2L Dispute Resolution  Survey Course First, only nineteen law schools, including ASL, require all their students to take an ADR survey class. The curriculum reflects the realities of lawyering in an era of the so-called  “ Vanishing Trial ."     The course provides students with basic interest-based negotiation skills. It also introduces them to the role of advocate in several ADR processes, especially mediation.    Research shows that ASL students who take only the required survey course have more training in ADR than most practicing attorneys. This training crea...