A recent discussion among a seasoned group of neutrals about the struggles of the professional mediator caught my eye. Some complained that the trend in litigated cases was to reduce the value of the mediator to a commodity, due to the constraints put on them by the litigants who were not process oriented.

Amalia D. Kessler, Lewis Talbot and Nadine Hearn Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies and Professor (by courtesy) of History at Stanford University, has authored “Arbitration and Americanization: The Paternalism of Progressive Procedural Reform,” Yale Law Journal, 2015 Forthcoming; Stanford Public Law Working Paper No. 2586550.

The Supreme Court of Texas has ordered a property developer to arbitrate its claims against a general contractor but refused to require it to submit the company’s claims against a number of other defendants to arbitration.

Dr. Yaraslau Kryvoi, Associate Professor at the University of West London and Senior Advisor to the International Courts Committee of the ABA Section of International Law, and Dr. Dmitry Davydenko, Visiting Fellow at Max Planck Institute for Comparative and International Private Law and Senior Associate with Muranov, Chernyakov & Partners, have published “Consent Awards in International Arbitration: From Settlement to Enforcement,” Brooklyn Journal of International Law, 2015, Forthcoming.