May 3, 2004
Proposed Reforms to the Federal Arbitration Act
 On April 15, at the American Bar Association Spring Meeting of the Section of International Law and Practice in New York, Professor Andrea Bjorklund, Thomas J. Butler, Professor Jack J. Coe, Richard Hulbert, Professor William W. (“Rusty”) Park, James Lloyd Loftis, John M. Townsend, and Celso Gonzalez-Falla participated in a panel discussion proposing reforms to the Federal Arbitration Act (“FAA”) to support international arbitration.
The panelists debated adopting the UNCITRAL Model Law as federal law, amending Chapters 2 or 3 of the FAA, or creating a new chapter to the FAA solely dedicated to international arbitrations. The purpose of the proposed changes to the FAA is to enable U.S. courts to create jurisprudence specifically geared toward addressing the issues unique to international arbitrations versus those common to employment and consumer arbitrations.
For more information on this topic, see William W. Park, Amending the Federal Arbitration Act, Center for International Arbitration and Litigation Law, The American Review of International Arbitration, Vol. 13, Nos. 1-4 (2002).
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