Originally from Arbitration of International Disputes in New York

PREVIEW

Based on Article I, clause 8 of the U.S. Constitution (the “Commerce Clause”), the U.S. Congress adopted the FAA in 1925.  Its twin goals were to address historic judicial hostility towards arbitration agreements in the United States and to place arbitration agreements on an equal footing with other contracts.  The FAA, which was adopted five years after the enactment of New York’s arbitration law, was further amended and restructured in 1947. More recently, the FAA was updated to mandate the enforcement of the 1958 United Nations Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards (“New York Convention”)  and the 1975 Inter-American Convention on International Commercial Arbitration (“Panama Convention”),  after these treaties were adopted by the United States in 1970 and 1986, respectively. These multilateral treaties provide the pillars for international commercial arbitration.  As of 2022, the FAA comprises four chapters: (i) General Provisions (Chapter 1);  (ii) Enforcement of the New York Convention (Chapter 2);  (iii) Enforcement of the Panama Convention (Chapter 3);  and (iv) Arbitration of disputes involving sexual assault and sexual harassment (Chapter 4).  The full text of the FAA is reproduced in the Appendix section of this book for ease of reference. Compared to the arbitration law of other countries, the FAA is relatively short, comprising only 33 sections as amended through 2022, with the implementing provisions pertaining to the New York and Panama Conventions covering a combined total of 15 sections of the statute.