Published on March 4, 2016

Updated on Sep. 18, 2024

A short and interesting article in the March 7, 2016 issue of the New Yorker reminds us of the role that the late Justice Antonin Scalia played in the development of the law of arbitration.

In “Courting Business“, James Surowiecki notes that Justice Scalia’s death is likely to have the greatest impact on what some scholars note is a decades-long trend of corporate-friendly decisions by the US Supreme Court.  Mr. Surowiecki points to two recent Court’s decisions on arbitration A.T. & T. v. Concepcion and American Express v. Italian Colors, as examples.  The Court’s majority opinions in both of these cases were penned by Justice Scalia and decided by a divided court (5-4 in Concepcion, 5-3 in Italian Colors, with Justice Sotomayor not taking part in the consideration of the case).

Thanks to Professor Randy Diamond (Missouri) for alerting us to the article.