1 - The Formation and Transformation of the Status of International and Domestic Arbitration in the United States

Summary

Consists of a historical analysis of international commercial arbitration in the United States. It traces the origins of international commercial arbitration to the arbitration agreements that follow the 1687 enactment of the Statute of Fines and Penalties in England, and also references the Act of 1854 in England that vested courts with the discretion to stay a legal proceeding in deference to arbitration agreements. This chapter also documents early U.S. common law authority that was antagonistic to arbitration generally. This introduction in abbreviated manner reviews landmark Supreme Court decisions that most descriptively represent the development of international arbitration and arbitration generally as standing in pari materia with judicial proceedings.