Scott Seidman co-authored an article, “When Is an Appraisal Provision in a Contract an ‘Arbitration Agreement’?”, published in the Spring 2015 issue of The Litigation Journal, the quarterly publication put together by the Oregon State Bar. Scott discusses how a court determines whether a valuation provision is an arbitration agreement.
The Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) does not define “arbitration agreement,” so the courts must fashion their own definition. The federal circuits have failed to come to an agreement and are currently fractured in at least two ways. First, the circuits dispute whether the federal common law or state law definitions of “arbitration agreement” apply. Second, the circuits applying federal common law disagree on the scope of the federal common law definition. Seidman’s article provides an overview of these two circuit splits and highlights different definitions of arbitration agreements under federal and state law.