By Genevieve Francois Introduction The American arbitration system is governed by the Federal Arbitration Act, which creates a structure that allows companies to mandate arbitration for dispute resolution. This format forces disputes to be resolved privately rather than in the more public arena of the court system. Mandatory arbitration clauses are often purposefully hidden within…
Category: Domestic (U.S.)
Effective Vindication in Name Only: How Arbitration Rights Now Depend on Geography
By Braxton Johnson Defendants invoke arbitration to control costs, timelines, and exposure, but courts must still confront a threshold question: will arbitration permit plaintiffs to meaningfully vindicate federal statutory rights? In Italian Colors, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) sought to answer this question by recognizing the “effective vindication doctrine,” which bars enforcement…
Raytheon on the Hot Seat: What a $950 Million FCPA Case Teaches MNEs About Arbitration and Compliance
By Alexandra Schieferer On October 16, 2024, defense giant Raytheon Company agreed to pay over $950 million to settle allegations of Foreign Corrupt Practices Act (FCPA) violations, defective pricing, and export control breaches, marking one of the largest joint settlements in recent years. This enforcement action illustrates how corruption investigations can spiral into cascading contractual…
Contracting a Womb: The Necessity of an Arbitration Clause
By Brenna Callahan In 2025, it is difficult to imagine a world without surrogacy. Celebrities like Kim Kardashian and Andy Cohen have ushered society into a new era of contracting a womb. The practice benefits same-sex couples and women with prohibitive health conditions. However, its popularity has only recently reached the masses. In the early…
The Evolving Landscape of Consumer Arbitration: Lessons from Coinbase, Ticketmaster, and Disney
By Jack Moore Last year was a busy one for arbitration in the United States. The Supreme Court decided three cases in 2024 pertaining to arbitration, the Ninth Circuit decided another, and in August, a high-profile dispute involving the Walt Disney Company brought the word “arbitration clause” into the popular conversation. The landscape of consumer…
The Arbitration Brief 