Who Decides the Validity of Your Contract?

Who do you turn to if you believe that an agreement is invalid? Should it make a difference if the agreement contains an arbitration clause? If it does have such a clause, can you nonetheless walk into court and have a judge decide? Or must the dispute go to arbitration? The Catch-22 is this: If an arbitrator were to determine that the agreement is invalid, the arbitrator logically would seem to have no jurisdiction over the matter to start with, because the arbitration clause therein should be invalid too. But if you were to litigate that dispute in court, and a judge determined that the agreement is valid, then an arbitrator should have resolved all disputes pursuant to the arbitration clause therein.

25 minute read May 30, 2006 at 09:55 AM
By
Peter J.W. Sherwin and Kenneth E. Aldous
Who Decides the Validity of Your Contract?

Who do you turn to if you believe that an agreement is invalid? Should it make a difference if the agreement contains an arbitration clause? If it does have such a clause, can you nonetheless walk into court and have a judge decide?

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