Federal appeals court rules Delaware ‘secret’ arbitration rule unconstitutional News
Federal appeals court rules Delaware ‘secret’ arbitration rule unconstitutional
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[JURIST] The US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit [official website] on Wednesday ruled [opinion, PDF] that restriction of public access to Delaware’s government-sponsored arbitration hearings is unconstitutional. The Court, in affirming the district court’s ruling, held that the provision that allows confidential judge-run arbitration hearings violates the First Amendment [Cornell LII materials], but stated that the decision does not invalidate the entire statute. It noted that the decision is based solely on the fact that the proceedings “are conducted outside the public view, not because of any problem otherwise inherent in a Judge-run arbitration scheme.” The court rejected the state’s argument that the provision allows more efficient proceedings and generates state revenue. The constitutional challenge was filed [complaint, PDF] by the Delaware Coalition for Open Government (DCOG) [advocacy website] in 2011 in response to the 2009 dispute resolution amendment [HB 49, PDF], which was adopted by the state in an effort to promote Delaware’s reputation as a preferable state in which to resolve business disputes.

Arbitration is becoming an increasingly popular form of dispute resolution around the world, leading to various legal opinions and controversies surrounding its use. Last year, Shafiq Jamoos, co-owner of the Jamoos Law Office, reviewed the costs and benefits of international arbitration [JURIST comment] compared to traditional litigation, writing that there is no definitive answer as to which is an inherently “better” process. A month earlier Russia’s Federal Arbitration Court ordered British Petroleum (BP) to pay 100 billion rubles (US$3.1 billion) in damages [JURIST report] to TNK-BP, BP’s 50-50 joint venture with Alfa Access Renova (AAR) [corporate websites], a consortium representing four Russian billionaire tycoons. Earlier in that year Dmytro Vorobey, an LL.M. Candidate at the University of Pittsburgh School of Law [official website] and intern at the district prosecutor’s office and the district court in Novomoskovk, Ukraine, provided a critique of Ukraine’s progress towards implementing consistent international arbitration practices [JURIST comment].

THIS DAY @ LAW

Martin Luther King Jr. wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail

On April 16, 1963, an incarcerated Martin Luther King, Jr. (arrested for demonstrating in defiance of a court order) wrote his Letter from Birmingham Jail in response to a published statement by eight fellow clergymen from Alabama.

Part of the letter read: We have waited for more than 340 years for our constitutional and God-given rights. The nations of Asia and Africa are moving with jetlike speed toward gaining political independence, but we stiff creep at horse-and-buggy pace toward gaining a cup of coffee at a lunch counter. Perhaps it is easy for those who have never felt the stinging dark of segregation to say, "Wait." But when you have seen vicious mobs lynch your mothers and fathers at will and drown your sisters and brothers at whim; when you have seen hate-filled policemen curse, kick and even kill your black brothers and sisters; when you see the vast majority of your twenty million Negro brothers smothering in an airtight cage of poverty in the midst of an affluent society; when you suddenly find your tongue twisted and your speech stammering as you seek to explain to your six-year-old daughter why she can't go to the public amusement park that has just been advertised on television, and see tears welling up in her eyes when she is told that Funtown is closed to colored children, and see ominous clouds of inferiority beginning to form in her little mental sky, and see her beginning to distort her personality by developing an unconscious bitterness toward white people; when you have to concoct an answer for a five-year-old son who is asking: "Daddy, why do white people treat colored people so mean?"; when you take a cross-county drive and find it necessary to sleep night after night in the uncomfortable corners of your automobile because no motel will accept you; when you are humiliated day in and day out by nagging signs reading "white" and "colored"; when your first name becomes "nigger," your middle name becomes "boy" (however old you are) and your last name becomes "John," and your wife and mother are never given the respected title "Mrs."; when you are harried by day and haunted by night by the fact that you are a Negro, living constantly at tiptoe stance, never quite knowing what to expect next, and are plagued with inner fears and outer resentments; when you are forever fighting a degenerating sense of "nobodiness" then you will understand why we find it difficult to wait. There comes a time when the cup of endurance runs over, and men are no longer willing to be plunged into the abyss of despair. I hope, sirs, you can understand our legitimate and unavoidable impatience. Read the full text of the Letter.

Former communist countries admitted for EU accession

On April 16, 2003, the 2003 Treaty of Accession was signed by 10 countries, admitting them for European Union (EU) ascension. After Malta and Cyprus, eight of the ten new EU nations (Poland, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, Slovenia, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania) were former communist countries. The signing of the treaty in Athens marked the first time that former members of the Soviet Bloc joined the EU.

Learn more about EU expansion from the organization's website.

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