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25 Harv. Negot. L. Rev. 1 (2019-2020)

handle is hein.journals/haneg25 and id is 1 raw text is: 









     The Supreme Court's Lamps Plus

       Arbitration Decision: A Fading

             Light for Class Actions


                     Imre S. Szalai*



                         CONTENTS
I.    Introduction  ..........................................    2
II.   A Summary of the Proceedings and the Supreme
      Court's Decision in Lamps Plus .......................     5
      A. The District Court's Order Permitting Class
         Proceedings .......................................     5
      B. The Ninth Circuit's Decision Affirming the
         Order Allowing Class Proceedings ................       6
      C. The Supreme Court's Splintered Decision
         Denying the Availability of Class Proceedings .....     7
III.  The Majority's Decision in Lamps Plus Is
      Fundamentally Flawed on Multiple Levels ...........       11
      A. The Majority Opinion Displays a Narrow,
         Warped Understanding of Consent, the
         Foundational Principle of Arbitration Law ........     11
      B. The Supreme Court's Lamps Plus Majority
         Propagates a Flawed Myth About Arbitration .....       19
      C. The Majority's Critique of Contra Proferentem,
         Applied More Broadly, Reveals the Weaknesses
         of the Court's Arbitration Jurisprudence ..........   23
      D. The Lamps Plus Decision Reveals Concerns
         about the Development of Arbitration Law ........     26
IV.   The Disappearing Availability of Class Proceedings
      when an Arbitration Clause Exists ...................     27
      A. Class Proceedings May Occur if the Arbitration
         Clause is Defective or Members of the Class
         Never Entered into a Binding Arbitration
         C lause  ............................................  27

   * Judge John D. Wessel Distinguished Professor of Social Justice, Loyola Uni-
versity New Orleans College of Law; Yale University, BA; Columbia University, JD.

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