Stolt-Nielsen

Stolt-Nielsen is the most interesting opinion of the term — to me.

The Volokh Conspiracy » After Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp.: Deciding When Class Arbitration Is Permissible 2010

I think Stolt-Nielsen is an important decision for at least two reasons.

The Volokh Conspiracy » After Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp.: Deciding When Class Arbitration Is Permissible 2010

The Stolt-Nielsen majority avoids that question by noting that only a plurality of the Court in Bazzle “decided that question” (whether “an arbitrator, not a court ... decide [s] whether a contract permits class arbitration”).

The Volokh Conspiracy » After Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp.: Deciding When Class Arbitration Is Permissible 2010

The obvious losers in Stolt-Nielsen are parties who enter into arbitration agreements and who have small claims.

The Volokh Conspiracy » After Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp.: Deciding When Class Arbitration Is Permissible 2010

Stolt-Nielsen is the most interesting opinion of the term — to me.

The Volokh Conspiracy » After Stolt-Nielsen v. AnimalFeeds Int’l Corp.: Deciding When Class Arbitration Is Permissible 2010

The ruling in Stolt-Nielsen thus isn't an anti-arbitration decision -- Stolt-Nielsen's customers are still required to arbitrate their claims that the company engaged in bad corporate conduct, they just have to do so individually in separate arbitrations instead of as a group in one proceeding.

Elizabeth B. Wydra: Citizens United Is Just the Tip of the Supreme Court's Pro-Corporate Iceberg Elizabeth B. Wydra 2010

(If there were any doubt that Stolt-Nielsen applies beyond the context of international cargo shipping, it should be dispelled by the fact that the wireless communications industry -- the folks who put the arbitration agreement into your cell phone contract -- filed a brief supporting the outcome reached in the case.)

Elizabeth B. Wydra: Citizens United Is Just the Tip of the Supreme Court's Pro-Corporate Iceberg Elizabeth B. Wydra 2010

In Stolt-Nielsen, the arbitrators ruled that antitrust claims against Stolt-Nielsen could proceed as a single class action, thus saving the claimants the time and money that would be needed to arbitrate each claim separately.

Elizabeth B. Wydra: Citizens United Is Just the Tip of the Supreme Court's Pro-Corporate Iceberg Elizabeth B. Wydra 2010

Given the tenor of the oral argument in Rent-A-Center, and the ruling in Stolt-Nielsen, it just may be that the Roberts Court will allow corporations to force pretty much every claim into private arbitration, but won't respect arbitrators 'efforts to make the process fairer or more efficient for the victims of corporate misconduct.

Elizabeth B. Wydra: Citizens United Is Just the Tip of the Supreme Court's Pro-Corporate Iceberg Elizabeth B. Wydra 2010

Then, on Tuesday, in a ruling along ideological lines in Stolt-Nielsen, the conservative Justices refused to require Stolt-Nielsen, an international shipping company, to submit to class arbitration of price-fixing claims because it wasn't entirely clear to the Justices that the company had meaningfully agreed to arbitrate class actions.

Elizabeth B. Wydra: Citizens United Is Just the Tip of the Supreme Court's Pro-Corporate Iceberg Elizabeth B. Wydra 2010