Arbitration Agreements

Arbitration Agreements

In 1904 and 1905, Secretary of State John Hay negotiated a series of treaties providing for the general arbitration of international disputes. Article II of the treaty with Great Britain, for example, provided as follows: “In each individual case the High Contracting Parties, before appealing to the Permanent Court of Arbitration, shall conclude a special Agreement defining clearly the matter in dispute and the scope of the powers of the Arbitrators, and fixing the periods for the formation of the Arbitral Tribunal and the several stages of the procedure.” 1 The Senate approved the British treaty by the constitutional majority having, however, first amended it by substituting the word “treaty” for “agreement.” President Theodore Roosevelt, characterizing the “ratification” as equivalent to rejection, sent the treaties to repose in the archives. “As a matter of historical practice,” Dr. McClure comments, “the compromise under which disputes have been arbitrated include both treaties and executive agreements in goodly numbers,” 2 a statement supported by both Willoughby and Moore.3

Resources

References

This text about Arbitration Agreements is based on “The Constitution of the United States of America: Analysis and Interpretation”, published by the U.S. Government Printing Office.

Notes

[Footnote 1] W. McClure, supra at 13-14.

[Footnote 2] Id. at 14.

[Footnote 3] 1 W. Willoughby, supra at 543.