Thursday, March 13
4:00-5:00 p.m.
Student Lounge
Professor Kristen Blankley presents:
“Ad Hoc Arbitration Preemption: A New Theory of Preemption Under the Federal Arbitration Act”
Arbitration is supposed to be a flexible, customizable, and contractual method of dispute resolution for parties who want to take advantages of the many benefits of the process. The federal law governing arbitration is necessarily limited to achieve these goals. The Supreme Court, however, in its preemption jurisdiction has largely taken this freedom away from the states and even private parties. Interestingly, the Court’s action is a result of inaction in the 1980s. This talk chronicles how the Court’s inaction have paved the way for a new type of arbitration preemption, an ad hoc system of preemption depending on the issue before the Court and the interests present in any given case. This system, not employed elsewhere in the law, is simply unsupportable under the Court’s jurisprudence or under public policy.
Join fellow students and faculty for refreshments 4:00 p.m. and the presentation at 4:30 p.m.