Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

For almost a half-century, U.S. has favored arbitration to settle disputes between employers and their organized employees. The authors review the resultant body of case law, showing that three different minimalist or expansionist paradigms of the arbitration/judiciary relationship have developed during this time. Analyzing these paradigms they suggest that a full evaluation of the matter of judicial review of arbitration awards will weigh in favor of immunity from review, although the policies adopted by the courts continue to evolve.

Even though almost all of the labor agreements in the United States call for the arbitration of disputes over their interpretation and application, the widespread acceptance of grievance arbitration is of relatively recent origin. 1, 2 The institution did not begin to take on its current stature and shape until four cases were decided by the U.S. Supreme Court between 1957 and 1960. This article examines those cases and their progeny, stressing the changing views expressed by the federal judiciary.