III Trust Arbitration as a Matter of National Law, 7 Legislative Approaches to Trust Arbitration in the United States

Subject(s):

Arbitrability — Arbitral agreements — Arbitral tribunals — Arbitrators

This chapter explores the variety, validity, and viability of various legislative attempts to resolve the uncertainty surrounding mandatory arbitration of internal trust disputes. In so doing, it provides a descriptive and normative analysis of various state legislative approaches regarding arbitration of trust disputes and critiques these efforts so as to help legislators going forward. Five US states—Florida, Arizona, New Hampshire, Missouri, and South Dakota—have adopted statutes expressly authorizing arbitration of internal trust disputes. The chapter considers each of these enactments in detail. It also compares these provisions to the Uniform Trust Code (UTC) and various proposed statutes in this area of law, including the American College of Trust and Estate Counsel (ACTEC) model acts and a bill that was discussed but ultimately not adopted in Hawai’i.