Steelers Rock (and You Don’t)

So, in the glory of my team winning the Super Bowl, I have been reflecting again on how sports teams operate in the modern era. It really is approved warfare — with war paint, team colors, and adrenaline all included. Sports allow you to be part of a group — and scream loudly about your superiority — in a way that is socially appropriate. And both your own and others’ responses encourage all of this.  First, your own personal reaction. I don’t know about you, but I was completely hoarse on Monday having screamed (pretty incessantly according to my kids) at the television for hours. What is it about sports that permits, encourages, and even demands that we act in relatively nutty ways?

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Mandatory Arbitration Limits?

As I am finishing up the semester teaching dispute resolution and focusing on arbitration, we’ve been having lots of fun in class finding mandatory arbitration clauses in our life — credit cards, cell phones, apartment leases, etc. My favorite clause to teach is from Gateway Computers, which used to have a clause requiring arbitration under the International Chamber of Commerce rules. My guess is that some junior associate drafting the clause thought it would be great to go to Paris on a regular basis!

I point out in class that there have been proposals to limit mandatory arbitration, but that there is generally little expectation these would be passed by the Senate or House. This year, however, the news might be different with the Democrats taking over. As Vicky Pynchon has helpfully posted, there is now new contemplation that the bill could be passed. The bill, proposed by Wisconsin Senator Russ Feingold last summer, provides:

Arbitration Fairness Act of 2007 – Declares that no predispute arbitration agreement shall be valid or enforceable if it requires arbitration of: (1) an employment, consumer, or franchise dispute, or (2) a dispute arising under any statute intended to protect civil rights or to regulate contracts or transactions between parties of unequal bargaining power.

Declares, further, that the validity or enforceability of an agreement to arbitrate shall be determined by a court, under federal law, rather than an arbitrator, irrespective of whether the party resisting arbitration challenges the arbitration agreement specifically or in conjunction with other terms of the contract containing such agreement.

Exempts arbitration provisions in collective bargaining agreements from this Act.

So . . . it will be interesting to watch how the new party in charge deals with issue of mandatory arbitration (and if we have to rewrite the arbitration chapters in our textbooks once again!).

Cross posted at Indisputably.

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As Honest As We Like to Think We Are

So . . . if no one knew when you lied, would you do it? Would you lie to save money? Would you lie to save your client money? Would the amount of money matter?

I have often taught negotiation ethics using Richard Shell’s division of people: the idealists, the pragmatists, and the poker-players. The poker-players assume that everyone who negotiates views it as a game: we all know that bluffing and puffing are part of the system -– caveat emptor. The pragmatists think that lying is generally unwise -– you’ll be found out, it’s not worth it, etc. The final school is the idealists -– lying is wrong and you shouldn’t do it.

It is wonderful when you can find a real-life example of idealistic telling-the-truth, and so I connect here to a lovely story about J.P. Hayes, a golf player. He played a nonconforming ball for a single hole of the second stage of the PGA Qualifying Tournament. He realized it more than a day after the “violation,” called it on himself, and disqualified himself from the tournament. This has, according to Yahoo, some severe career-altering effects down the line.

Now, the easy move here would be to either do nothing or blame the caddy. Hayes rose above both those temptations, putting all the blame on himself and asserting that everybody else on the PGA in his shoes would have done the exact same thing. We’ll never know, but let’s hope so.

Also, Hayes already has more than $7 million in career earnings, so it’s not like he’d consigned himself to another year working the counter at the Quik Stop. But still, knowing you’re taking yourself out of the running for a year of career stability and wealth takes some serious situational ethics.

But, as J.P. puts it, at least he can sleep at night. What would you have done?

Cross posted at Indisputably.

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