9 U.S.C. § 15
Section 15 · Inapplicability of the Act of State doctrine
This is the Federal Arbitration Act
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 103 court decisions — leading case Allied-Bruce Terminix Cos., Inc. v. Dobson (1995)
Most recently applied in Certain Underwriters at Lloyds, London v. 3131 Veterans Blvd LLC; MPIRE (May 2025)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 28 U.S.C. § 1292 · 28 U.S.C. § 1291 · 9 U.S.C. § 1
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year.Markers show enactment, consequential amendments, and circuit splits over this section — watch for a citation surge after a change or a disagreement. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Enforcement of arbitral agreements, confirmation of arbitral awards, and execution upon judgments based on orders confirming such awards shall not be refused on the basis of the Act of State doctrine.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Codification
Another section 15 of this title was renumbered section 16 of this title.