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65 Va. J. Int'l L. 1 (2024-2025)

handle is hein.journals/vajint65 and id is 1 raw text is: ARTICLE Challenging and Enforcing International Arbitral Awards in U.S. Federal Courts: An Empirical Study CHRISTOPHER R. DRAHOZAL DONALD EARL CHILDRESS III JACKJ. COE, JR. CATHERINE A. ROGERS* One of thep'imary reasons wh' transnationa/lactorspreer international arbitration over international/ itigation is that/they anticipate thatthose internationaarbitra/l awards not vo/untariy comp/ied with are highly enorceab/e in nationa/ courts. This assumption is e'pecia/|y orce'u/lwith re'pect to U.S. ederal/courts. Historica/!y, man y commentators have estimatedthat national/courtsgive effectto about90% o all/awards. 'lhen scho/ars set out to test empirically this estimated 90% rate, however, the'y reportedfidig lower rates at which nationa /courtsgive effect to awards. These empiric tuIdies a //suffer >m methodo/ogica/shortcomings that have distorted their resu/ts. Thep rimry methodo/ogica! de iciency o these studies was their re/iance on commercia/l databases, su<h as lY es/aw or the K luwer Arbitration database. These databases existfor lega/ research, not empirical research. As a resu/t, the'y do not contain orpu/port to contain either a comprehensive or a representative set of cases. This Article, by contrast, reports on U.S. federal court treatment of international arbitral awards based on an original dataset compiled from U.S. federal court dockets, which list all cases filed in federal courts. Based on this dataset, wefind that other empirical studies understate, sometimes dramatically, the rates at which U.S. federal courts give effect to awards. Our dataset consists of 960 petitions to confirm, enforce, or vacate international arbitra/ awards that were filed in cases docketed in U.S. federal courts between 2011 and * Christopher R. Drahozal: John M. Rounds Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law. Donald Earl Childress III: Professor of Law, Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. Jack J. Coe, Jr.: Professor of Law, Pepperdine University Caruso School of Law. Catherine A. Rogers: Professor of Law, Bocconi University; Affiliated Scholar at the Center for Negotiation and Dispute Resolution (CNDR) and Research Professor at University of California, College of the Law, San Francisco. The authors are especially grateful for the very helpful research assistance of Ryan Brown, Izabela Morrigi Costa, Sarmad Majeed, Kendall Strabala, Brian Vanorsby, Derek Ulrich, and Anlin Ye. Thanks to JoelJohnson, Benno Kimmelman, Bo Rutledge, Steve Ware, and Chris Whytock, and to participants at the AALS ADR Works-in-Progress Conference at Quinnipiac University School of Law, participants at the Midwestern Law & Economics Association Annual Meeting at Maurer School of Law, Indiana University Bloomington, and attendees at the Fordham Conference on International Arbitration and Mediation for their very helpful comments.

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