• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.3-35
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• 2017

For recent years, several disputes between Korean consumers and multinational companies have arisen. Since the disputes were big and material that children's safety was at issue, a question started if Korean law properly has protected consumers' rights against multinational companies. While the Korean legal society tried to legislate punitive compensation with this concern, the U.S. Supreme Court reached an interesting case law regarding consumer contracts. A recent trend on consumer contracts in the United States shows that general terms have arbitration clause with class action waiver. As much as international arbitration has worked as the most effective resolution in international commercial disputes, the concept is still foreign and the experts are not approachable to lay individual consumers. However, class action in arbitration can hugely help for lay individual consumers to bring a case before arbitration tribunal. California courts consistently showed the analysis that the practical impact of prohibiting class action in arbitration clause is to ban lay individual consumers from fighting for their rights. However, the Supreme Court held that the arbitration clause shall be enforced as parties agree even if consumers practically cannot fight for their rights in the end. Even though consumer contracts are a typical example of lack of parity and of adhesive contract, the Supreme Court still applies liberalism that parties are equal in power and free to agree. This case law has a crucial implication since Korean consumers buy goods and services from the U.S. and other countries in everyday life. Accordingly, they are deemed to agree on the dispute resolution clauses, which might violate their constitutional right to bring their cases before the adjudication tribunal. This issue could be more important than adopting punitive compensation because consumers' rights are not necessarily governed by Korean law but by the governing law of the general terms and conditions chosen and written by the multinational companies. Thus this paper studies and analyzes the practical reality of international arbitration and influence of arbitration clause with class action waiver with the U.S. Supreme Court and California case laws.

• Journal of Arbitration Studies
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.135-154
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• 2015

The European Union has adopted the ADR Directive and ODR Regulation in 2013 with the purpose to strengthen the e-commerce within the EU. Not covered by these legislations is the trade in the B2B sector. The author examines the question of whether online ADR under the currently applicable legal framework would be possible in Germany. At the center of his review is the possibility of an arbitration clause which refers exclusively to an online ADR scheme, may be included in the General Terms and Conditions of an online trader.

• Korean Security Journal
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• no.11
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• pp.129-157
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• 2006

With rapid social change, by culminating the social hazards and the safety problems about it are on the increase too. According to the needs for the safety the demand of the private guard & security provided the safety and security service against danger is also increasing. As the need for the safety is increasing, so recently the private guard & security industry is extended. Therefore the purpose of this study is to grasp and carry out researches into the legal structure on the Security contract, is to analyze the formation of contract and find out the ensuing problem in order to prevent or settle the dispute which is apt to occur between the specific client and the security companies. In order to minimize the dispute going with security relationship in particular, it is necessary that one should write down the agreed contents as the document explicitly to make a security contract with the parties. Hereupon in the plan which standardizes the security contract with each parties autonomously, it is suggested that this study should present the model of Dispute Resolution Clause Especially it is the best means that it is amicable consultation or negotiation as the effective way of settlement methods of private dispute arising from the concerned parties. In inevitable case it recommends the method which solves the dispute by means of an arbitration than litigation at administration of justice(in terms of jurisdiction). If the parties wish to settle the disputes by arbitration, they must come to an arbitration agreement in the form of a arbitration clause in the security contract. After the test and evaluation through application utilizing it in actual security field, the security standard contract regulates about it and this terms should widely apply a individual case to whole industry.

• THE INTERNATIONAL COMMERCE & LAW REVIEW
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• v.77
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• pp.43-67
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• 2018

Arbitration is one of alternative dispute resolution systems which settle a dispute by arbitrators(private persons) based on a contract between contracting parties without a judicial litigation system involved. As a valid arbitration agreement is an essential requirement for commencement of arbitration, the first thing to be determined is whether there is a valid arbitration agreement or not when a dispute is submitted. A consumer arbitration agreement usually exists as an arbitration clause in an adhesive contract between consumers and a seller. When consumers buy a product from a seller, they are requested to agree on a general terms and conditions which are unilaterally drafted by a seller in advance. These terms and conditions are not negotiable because it is an adhesive contract and consumers are placed in "take-it-or-leave-it" position. Therefore, even though there is an arbitration agreement between consumers and a seller, it has to be carefully considered whether it has a legal effect or not. In this respect, a court will examine if an arbitration agreement has procedural unconscionability and substantive unconscionability. Therefore, as U.S is a well-advanced and arbitration-friendly country, this paper analyzes four U.S cases to find out (i) what a court considers, (ii) how a court examines and interprets procedural and substantive unconscionability and (iii) if there has been a change in regard to a court's decision. By doing so, it will provide some suggestions and guidelines for a consumer arbitration in Korea.