Tagged: 1980s

“Beginning in the early 1980s and progressing through most of the first decade of the twenty-first century, judicial decisions relating to (1) the question whether a particular interlocutory arbitral decision was final or otherwise subject to immediate judicial review and (2) the effect functus officio principles had on those issues were highly divergent. With one recent exception, prior to the United States Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Stolt-Nielsen, S.A. v. AnimalFeeds International, Corp., those decisions by lower federal courts were typically based on an assessment of the “finality” of the pertinent arbitral award or decision. The pre-Stolt-Nielsen decisions by lower federal courts nonetheless were marked by varying degrees of inconsistency and confusion, depending on the nature of the matter adjudicated in the interlocutory arbitral decision and, often, on which circuit — or which court within a particular circuit — was involved. The result for arbitrating parties and arbitrators was a lack of predictability following the issuance of interlocutory arbitral decisions, which sometimes were deemed final and subject to immediate judicial review and at other times were deemed preliminary in nature such that the arbitrators were not functus officio with respect to the matters decided.”

There was just something about the 80s and those three consecutive terms in which Republicans controlled the executive branch…

Source: James M. Gaitis. Finality, Ripeness, and Functus Officio: The Interlocutory Arbitral Award Conundrum. Journal of the ACCL. Vol. 7, No. 2. pg. 13. 2013.