Document Type
Article
Publication Title
North Carolina Law Review
Abstract
In this Article, I focus on another dimension of the obscurity surrounding mandatory arbitration: the outright disappearance of claims that are subject to this process. The secrecy and nontransparency of arbitration providers and procedures greatly impeded empirical research on arbitration, its incidence, and its outcomes for decades after the Supreme Court launched the mandatory-arbitration juggernaut. But the picture is gradually coming into focus. It now appears that the great bulk of disputes that are subject to mandatory arbitration agreements (“MAAs”)—that is, a large share of all legal disputes between individuals (consumers and employees) and corporations—simply evaporate before they are even filed. It is one thing to know that mandatory arbitration draws a thick veil of secrecy over cases that are subject to that process. It is quite another to find that almost nothing lies behind that veil. Mandatory arbitration is less of an “alternative dispute resolution” mechanism than it is a magician’s disappearing trick or a mirage. Metaphors beckon, but I have opted for that of the black hole into which matter collapses and no light escapes.
First Page
679
Volume
96
Publication Date
2018
Recommended Citation
Estlund, Cynthia, "The Black Hole of Mandatory Arbitration" (2018). Faculty Articles. 317.
https://gretchen.law.nyu.edu/fac-articles/317
