The Penn State Law Yearbook on Arbitration and Mediation’s 2017 Symposium, entitled “Controversies in Arbitration,” features arbitration scholars and practitioners and their assessments of current drawbacks in the arbitration process. The panel discussions address three important themes: (1) the reception of arbitration in different legal traditions and systems; (2) the role of arbitration in consumer transactions; (3) contemporary criticisms and misgivings of arbitration. View abstracts here.

Panel 1: Arbitration and Legal Traditions 
Do common law and civil law countries respond differently to arbitration? Are geopolitical factors critical? In particular, Latin American legal systems tend to politicize their evaluation of arbitration. The panelists will assess arbitration from a general Latin American perspective and from the vantage point of specific countries, like Brazil. What role do Brazilian judges play in the enforcement of arbitral awards? Is the Brazilian judiciary deficient in its approach to arbitration?

Professor Andrea Bjorklund, McGill University Faculty of Law
Mr. John H. Rooney, Jr., P.A., The Law Office of John H. Rooney Jr., P.A.
Professor Carlos Carmona, Marques, Rosado, Toledo, Cesar & Carmona
Judge Andrea Galhardo Palma, San Paulo State Court, Brazil
Mr. Carlos S. Forbes, President of the Center for Arbitration and Mediation of the Chamber of Commerce Brazil-Canada

Panel 2: Arbitration and Consumer Transactions
The use of arbitration in the consumer context has been particularly controversial. The presentations will address whether the FAA (“Federal Arbitration Act”) should be amended to ban pre-dispute provisions for arbitration in the adhesive circumstances of consumer traditions; recent litigation surrounding UBER’s use of an arbitral clause in its service contracts; and existing and potential controversies associated with the use of on-line arbitration.

Professor David Allen Larson, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Professor Jeffrey Dasteel, UCLA School of Law
Professor Jill I. Gross, Pace University School of Law 

Panel 3: Critical and Contemporary Views of Arbitration  
Given the pre-emptive effect of the FAA, do state laws of arbitration have any but a subservient function? How do regulatory agencies assess and can their regulations control the FAA? The panelists will explore controversies that are currently taking place in reinsurance arbitration; whether the Supreme Court's invitation in Hall Street Associates to employ different standards of review evidences a skepticism of arbitration that threatens to undercut the uniform edifice of arbitration that the Supreme Court has, to date, constructed; and, finally, whether the New York arbitration convention support or dissent from the substantive rules of the FAA.

Professor Jeffrey Stempel, UNLV School of Law
Dean Susan L. Karamanian, The George Washington University Law School
Professor Edward F. Sherman, Tulane University Law School
Professor Kristen Blankley, Nebraska College of Law
Professor H. Allen Blair, Mitchell Hamline School of Law
Mr. Oluwaseun Ajayi, Esq., U.S. Department of Education

PLEASE NOTE: Registration begins at 8:00 a.m. and presentations will last until 3:30 p.m. Parking is available in the Lewis Katz Building parking lot, or the East Deck on Bigler Road across from Park Avenue and the Lewis Katz Building.

Continuing Legal Education (CLE) credits will be offered free of charge to attorneys who register and attend the event in-person.