Description:
<jats:p><jats:italic>The US legal rules governing arbitration must be distilled from a potent mixture of international law, federal law and local (state) law. Congressional legislation implements the New York Convention treaty obligations of the United States with respect to the enforcement of international arbitration agreements. The federal legislation also expresses a strong national policy favoring arbitration which pre-empts contravening state laws and court decisions. Nonetheless, state legal rules remain critical in providing the essence of arbitral contract law. This article discusses the interaction among these different principles as they have developed in specific cases, many of them decided by the US Supreme Court.</jats:italic></jats:p>