What happens when an award of an Olympic medal decision is overturned? In this gripping episode of Arbitration Talk, CAS arbitrators Jim Carter and Kristen Thorsness join host Rich Silberberg to unpack the most highly disputed medal award of the Paris 2024 Olympics. A protest over scoring in the women’s gymnastics floor exercise event final led to a shocking series of reversals, leaving three athletes in limbo and setting the stage for a controversial ruling by the Court of Arbitration …
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SCOTUS Holds That When Parties Enter into Multiple Contracts Containing Conflicting Dispute Resolution Provisions, A Court, Not an Arbitrator, Must Decide Which Contract Governs
In Coinbase v. Suski, 610 U.S. __ (May 23, 2024) (“Coinbase”), SCOTUS resolved a very narrow legal question based upon a highly specific factual scenario. The parties entered into two contracts. The earlier contract contained an arbitration clause specifically delegating issues of arbitrability to an arbitrator. The subsequent contract contained a forum selection clause requiring litigation of disputes in the California courts. The case called upon SCOTUS to decide whether an arbitrator or a …
SCOTUS Holds That Transportation Worker Need Not Work in Transportation Industry to Qualify for FAA Section 1 Exemption
On April 12, 2024, in Bissonnette v. LePage Bakeries St., LLC (“Bissonnette”), the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously resolved a split in the U.S. Courts of Appeal concerning the scope of the exemption in Section 1 of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) for "contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce." Last Term, in Southwest Airlines Co. v. Saxon (“Saxon”), SCOTUS had held that “any class of workers directly …
Section 3 of the Federal Arbitration Act: Why it’s important
While hunkering down and avoiding freezing weather, the Aardvark* came across an important arbitration case where the Supreme Court granted certiorari on January 12 of this year on the following issue: Whether Section 3 of the Federal Arbitration Act requires district courts to stay a lawsuit pending arbitration, or whether district courts have discretion to dismiss when all claims are subject to arbitration. Section 3 references staying the court proceeding, but many …
SCOTUS Requires Stay of Proceedings Pending Interlocutory Appeals of Orders Denying Arbitration
Section 16(a) of the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) authorizes an interlocutory appeal from a federal district court order denying a motion to compel arbitration. On Friday, June 23, 2023, a sharply-divided U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Coinbase, Inc. v. Abraham Bielski (No. 22–105) that if such an interlocutory appeal is filed, the order denying the motion to compel arbitration must be stayed pending the outcome of the appeal. The practical effect of the ruling in Coinbase is that a party’s …
Arbitration is Efficient! US Supreme Court Rejects Foreign Discovery Requests in International Arbitration
A CCA Blog: The Aardvark* My friends on the US Supreme Court unanimously agreed this week that parties in foreign arbitrations cannot ask US courts for discovery. The Supreme Court’s opinion in ZF Automotive US, Inc., et al. v. Luxshare, Ltd., and AlixPartners, LLP, et al. v. Fund for Protection of Investors' Rights in Foreign States (June 13, 2022) settled a dispute among the US Circuits over whether 28 USC 1782, a statute providing for foreign court assistance, applied in …