Blog Archives
BG Group and ‘Conditions’ to Arbitral Jurisdiction
April 5, 2016
Professor Alan Scott Rau, Mark G. and Judy G. Yudof Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor Andrea K. Bjorklund, L. Yves Fortier Chair in International Arbitration and International Commercial Law at McGill University, have published “BG Group and ‘Conditions’ to Arbitral Jurisdiction,”Pepperdine Law Review, Forthcoming; KBH Energy Center Research Paper No. 2016-4. In the scholarly work, Professors Rau and Bjorklund each provide their own perspective on the United...
April 5, 2016
Professor Alan Scott Rau, Mark G. and Judy G. Yudof Chair in Law at the University of Texas School of Law, and Professor Andrea K. Bjorklund, L. Yves Fortier Chair in International Arbitration and International Commercial Law at McGill University, have published “BG Group and ‘Conditions’ to Arbitral Jurisdiction,”Pepperdine Law Review, Forthcoming; KBH Energy Center Research Paper No. 2016-4. In the scholarly work, Professors Rau and Bjorklund each provide their own perspective on the United...
Helpful Class Settlement Guidance from Two Recent Circuit Opinions
April 4, 2016
Two recent opinions issued by panels for the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits approved class settlements and provide helpful guidance on crafting class settlement agreements likely to withstand objection. In Greco v. Ginn Dev. Co., LLC, an Eleventh Circuit panel considered the objections of lone objector Christopher Greco to class settlement with all purchasers of real estate in one of the defendants’ developments. 14-11443, 2015 WL 7755673 (11th Cir. 2015). * * * Likewise, Berry v. Schulman,...
April 4, 2016
Two recent opinions issued by panels for the Fourth and Eleventh Circuits approved class settlements and provide helpful guidance on crafting class settlement agreements likely to withstand objection. In Greco v. Ginn Dev. Co., LLC, an Eleventh Circuit panel considered the objections of lone objector Christopher Greco to class settlement with all purchasers of real estate in one of the defendants’ developments. 14-11443, 2015 WL 7755673 (11th Cir. 2015). * * * Likewise, Berry v. Schulman,...
SCOTUS Summarily Reverses Second Arbitration Case This Term
April 4, 2016
Showing it will soldier on without Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court granted cert, vacated, and remanded an arbitration decision from West Virginia yesterday. Because this is the exact same treatment the Court gave a case from Hawaii’s highest court in January (and the same treatment I predicted, ahem), it suggests SCOTUS is trying to go on with business as usual. So, what was the West Virginia case? It is the Schumacher Homes case I wrote about last July, in which that state’s highest court...
April 4, 2016
Showing it will soldier on without Justice Scalia, the Supreme Court granted cert, vacated, and remanded an arbitration decision from West Virginia yesterday. Because this is the exact same treatment the Court gave a case from Hawaii’s highest court in January (and the same treatment I predicted, ahem), it suggests SCOTUS is trying to go on with business as usual. So, what was the West Virginia case? It is the Schumacher Homes case I wrote about last July, in which that state’s highest court...
Srivastava on Apologies & Defection
April 4, 2016
Vatsalya Srivastava (Tilburg University - Center and Faculty of Economics and Business Administration; Amity School of Economics) has posted The Sorry Clause on SSRN. Here is the abstract: When players face uncertainty in choosing actions, undesirable outcomes cannot be avoided. Accidental defections caused by uncertainty, that does not depend on the level of care, require a mechanism to reconcile the players. This paper shows the existence of a perfect sorry equilibrium in a game of imperfect public...
April 4, 2016
Vatsalya Srivastava (Tilburg University - Center and Faculty of Economics and Business Administration; Amity School of Economics) has posted The Sorry Clause on SSRN. Here is the abstract: When players face uncertainty in choosing actions, undesirable outcomes cannot be avoided. Accidental defections caused by uncertainty, that does not depend on the level of care, require a mechanism to reconcile the players. This paper shows the existence of a perfect sorry equilibrium in a game of imperfect public...
Do Europeans Like Nudges?
April 3, 2016
In recent years, many governments have shown a keen interest in “nudges” – approaches to law and policy that maintain freedom of choice, but that steer people in certain directions. Yet to date, there is little evidence on whether citizens of various societies support nudges and nudging. We report the results of nationally representative surveys in six European nations: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom. We find strong majority support for nudges of the sort that...
April 3, 2016
In recent years, many governments have shown a keen interest in “nudges” – approaches to law and policy that maintain freedom of choice, but that steer people in certain directions. Yet to date, there is little evidence on whether citizens of various societies support nudges and nudging. We report the results of nationally representative surveys in six European nations: Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, and the United Kingdom. We find strong majority support for nudges of the sort that...
World’s First Publicly-Listed Law Firm to Restructure After Mammoth Loss
April 3, 2016
Australia’s Slater & Gordon has grown accustomed to life in the spotlight. Ever since becoming the world’s first publicly-listed law firm in 2007, the personal injury and employment claims specialist has had to regularly provide statements informing investors of its financial performance and strategic developments, while its every move has been closely scrutinized by rivals and industry observers. At first, the firm thrived, expanding rapidly through a glut of acquisitions, including a transformative...
April 3, 2016
Australia’s Slater & Gordon has grown accustomed to life in the spotlight. Ever since becoming the world’s first publicly-listed law firm in 2007, the personal injury and employment claims specialist has had to regularly provide statements informing investors of its financial performance and strategic developments, while its every move has been closely scrutinized by rivals and industry observers. At first, the firm thrived, expanding rapidly through a glut of acquisitions, including a transformative...
Divorced from Reality: Rethinking Family Dispute Resolution
April 3, 2016
The title of this book perfectly tees up the authors’ thesis, and their penetrating analysis makes the book a stimulating read for everyone in the field. Though focused on mediation’s use in the family area, their discussion yields rich insights for anyone engaged in the challenges of dispute systems design, and their manuscript serves as an enviable model for clear, temperate, and accessible writing. Murphy and Singer argue that the contemporary landscape that shapes what constitutes a “family”...
April 3, 2016
The title of this book perfectly tees up the authors’ thesis, and their penetrating analysis makes the book a stimulating read for everyone in the field. Though focused on mediation’s use in the family area, their discussion yields rich insights for anyone engaged in the challenges of dispute systems design, and their manuscript serves as an enviable model for clear, temperate, and accessible writing. Murphy and Singer argue that the contemporary landscape that shapes what constitutes a “family”...
Contract Consideration and Behavior
April 2, 2016
Contract recitals are ubiquitous. Yet, we have a thin understanding of how individuals behave with respect to these doctrinally important relics. Most jurists follow Lon Fuller in concluding that when read, contract recitals accomplish their purpose: to caution against inconsiderate contractual obligation. Notwithstanding the foundational role that this assumption has played in doctrinal and theoretical debates, it has not been tested. This Article offers what we believe to be the first experimental...
April 2, 2016
Contract recitals are ubiquitous. Yet, we have a thin understanding of how individuals behave with respect to these doctrinally important relics. Most jurists follow Lon Fuller in concluding that when read, contract recitals accomplish their purpose: to caution against inconsiderate contractual obligation. Notwithstanding the foundational role that this assumption has played in doctrinal and theoretical debates, it has not been tested. This Article offers what we believe to be the first experimental...
Carrie Fisher puts her ‘droid’ expertise to work for IBM Watson
April 2, 2016
Carrie Fisher may have made a name for herself battling the Empire with the likes of R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars, but in her latest gig she’s putting her droid expertise to use in a decidedly more docile manner. As part of an IBM marketing campaign — and a larger unrelated effort — to rebrand artificial intelligence, IBM cast Fischer as a therapist in a “Coping with Humans” support group. * * * With $1 billion set aside to establish a business unit for IBM Watson in January 2014,...
April 2, 2016
Carrie Fisher may have made a name for herself battling the Empire with the likes of R2D2 and C3PO in Star Wars, but in her latest gig she’s putting her droid expertise to use in a decidedly more docile manner. As part of an IBM marketing campaign — and a larger unrelated effort — to rebrand artificial intelligence, IBM cast Fischer as a therapist in a “Coping with Humans” support group. * * * With $1 billion set aside to establish a business unit for IBM Watson in January 2014,...
Mining Human Behaviors from Fiction to Power Interactive Systems
April 2, 2016
From smart homes that prepare coffee when we wake, to phones that know not to interrupt us during important conversations, our collective visions of HCI imagine a future in which computers understand a broad range of human behaviors. Today our systems fall short of these visions, however, because this range of behaviors is too large for designers or programmers to capture manually. In this paper, we instead demonstrate it is possible to mine a broad knowledge base of human behavior by analyzing more...
April 2, 2016
From smart homes that prepare coffee when we wake, to phones that know not to interrupt us during important conversations, our collective visions of HCI imagine a future in which computers understand a broad range of human behaviors. Today our systems fall short of these visions, however, because this range of behaviors is too large for designers or programmers to capture manually. In this paper, we instead demonstrate it is possible to mine a broad knowledge base of human behavior by analyzing more...
