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Justice Breyer: "The case of the century"
November 07, 2007 by Ross Runkel at LawMemo
"The case of the century" - That's what Justice Breyer said about Hall Street Associates v. Mattel during today's oral argument.
Click here for full transcript.
At issue is whether a federal court must (or may) enforce an arbitration agreement that gives the court authority to review the arbitrator's award to see whether "the arbitrator's conclusions of law are erroneous."
Justice Breyer referred to this case as the "case of the century" "because it's going to take a hundred years to finish."
Arbitration awards typically are enforced by courts without inquiring into the correctness of the arbitrator's legal conclusions. The Federal Arbitration Act provides this framework. Justice Breyer seems to think that allowing the parties to expand the review power of the federal court will result in additional delay and lack of finality. Me too.
It's pretty hard to tell - from reading the transcript - which way the Supreme Court is leaning in this case. I'm still betting [here's my prediction] that the Court will not allow private parties to expand the role of federal courts -- simply because that's Congress's job.
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