The US Supreme Court’s decision last month opting not to resolve whether an arbitrator’s manifest disregard of the law provides a valid basis to vacate arbitral awards is proving frustrating to practitioners. The high court passed on the chance to resolve the manifest disregard question by denying a certiorari petitionfiled by software developer who was seeking to revive his $5 million arbitral.
In general, the manifest disregard doctrine is aimed at vacating awards where the arbitrator intentionally ignored a clear and applicable law about which they were aware, according to Bracwell’s J.P. Duffy IV.
“It’s really designed as sort of a fail-safe for those instances where an arbitrator … says, ‘I’m just going to totally ignore what the law says and reach my own conclusion,’” Duffy told Law360.
