The Non-Effect of Stolt-Nielsen: Issue of Consolidation is Still Within an Arbitrator's Control by Maria Orecchio and Victoria Melcher

[Editor's note: Ms. Orecchio is Senior Counsel in Clyde & Co.'s New York office, focusing her practice on the litigation and arbitration of insurance and reinsurance disputes. Ms. Melcher is an associate in the firm's New York office and her principal areas of practice are insurance and reinsurance litigation and arbitration.]

Several commentators have suggested that the United States Supreme Court's decision in Stolt-Nielsen S.A. v. AnimalFeeds Int'l Corp., U.S. , 130 S. Ct. 1758 (2010), requires that courts, not arbitrators, decide whether several claims may be "consolidated," or heard simultaneously, within a single arbitration. These commentators misapprehend Stolt-Nielsen by …