9 U.S.C. § 2 — Validity, irrevocability, and enforcement of agreements to arbitrate

This section makes arbitration agreements legally binding, in two situations. The first is a written clause inside a maritime contract, or a contract involving commerce, where the parties agree ahead of time that any future dispute arising from that contract — or a refusal by one side to perform any part of it — will be settled by arbitration instead of a lawsuit. The second is a written agreement made after a dispute has already come up, where the parties agree to submit that specific, existing dispute to arbitration. Either kind of agreement is valid, cannot be revoked, and can be enforced in court. There are only two ways around this: grounds that exist at law or in equity for revoking any contract — this section doesn't say what those grounds are — or grounds otherwise provided elsewhere in chapter 4 of this title.