Consideration of \u27Contracting Culture\u27 in Enforcing Arbitration Provisions

The Federal Arbitration Act mandates strict and uniform enforcement of standardized pre-dispute arbitration provisions. This may not be proper, however, in light of the importance of context with respect to these provisions. This Article therefore seeks to remind courts of the importance of exchange context by proposing a contracting culture continuum for enforcing these arbitration provisions that acknowledges the impacts of these provisions in a particular communal context. Contracting culture encompasses economic and non-economic relational factors that impact dispute resolution agreements, but go beyond common conceptions of culture focused on ethnicity, nationality, or religion. It also explores beyond the primary domestic versus international factors and spans contracting cultures ranging from intra communal to extra communal in order to highlight how parties\u27 relations, understandings, and values may have the greatest impact on the fairness of form arbitration provisions