USA Law and Practice Contributed by: Matthew H. Kirtland, Timothy Tyler, Katie Connolly and Taylor LeMay, Norton Rose Fulbright
• International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR) (2024) in descending order: technology; construc - tion; financial services; real estate; entertainment; life sciences; energy. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions According to a recent survey, the following institu - tions’ rules were chosen most frequently for interna - tional disputes (in descending order): • ICC; • American Arbitration Association (AAA) or its affili - ated International Centre for Dispute Resolution (ICDR); • LCIA; and • Singapore International Arbitration Centre (SIAC). Two other institutions of note in the United States are the International Institute for Conflict Prevention and Resolution (CPR) and Judicial Arbitration and Media - There are no federal courts in the United States that specialise in hearing disputes related to international arbitration although certain jurisdictions hear more cases than others (eg, Washington, DC and New York City). State courts have concurrent jurisdiction with federal courts under the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA). Two states – New York and Florida – have specific provi - sions for handling international arbitration matters. In New York, state courts assign all international arbi - tration-related cases to a dedicated judge. In Florida, there is the Florida International Commercial Arbitra - tion (ICA) court, which hears international commercial arbitration matters. tion Services (JAMS). 1.4 National Courts
ters 2 and 3 implement the New York and Panama Conventions, respectively. Chapter 4, added in 2022, prohibits employers from requiring employees or con - tractors to arbitrate claims of sexual harassment or sexual assault. It appears that Chapter 4 applies in international cases, but this has not been extensively tested in the courts. The FAA is not based on the UNCITRAL Model Law, but several US states have based their state interna - tional arbitration laws on the Model Law, including California, Texas and Florida. 2.2 Changes to National Law There have not been significant changes to the FAA since 2022, when Chapter 4 was added (discussed in 2.1 Governing Law ). The FAA places arbitration agreements on “equal foot - ing” with other contracts. Under the FAA, an arbitra - tion agreement must be in writing and must be part of a valid contract. However, the arbitration agree - ment need not necessarily be signed, and it can be incorporated by reference. Arbitration agreements can be invalidated by “generally applicable contract defenses” such as fraud, duress or unconscionability. 3.2 Arbitrability The FAA provides that it does not apply to “contracts of employment of seamen, railroad employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce” (9 USC Section 1). The Supreme Court has also ruled that the FAA does not allow a court to compel class arbitration when the agreement does not explicitly provide for such. Additionally, arbitration has recently faced pushback in the United States from some legislators and several states have enacted laws designed to limit mandatory arbitration – these usually affect only domestic arbitration. Finally, as discussed in 2.1 Governing Law , Chapter 4 prohibits employers from requiring employees or contractors to arbitrate claims of sexual harassment or sexual assault. 3. The Arbitration Agreement 3.1 Enforceability
2. Governing Legislation 2.1 Governing Law
The FAA governs arbitration in both state and fed - eral courts. Chapter 1 of the FAA concerns arbitration generally and primarily governs domestic arbitration. Chapter 1 applies to international arbitration in so far as it does not conflict with Chapters 2 and 3. Chap -
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