9 U.S.C. § 201
Section 201 · Enforcement of Convention
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 462 court decisions — leading case Scherk v. Alberto-Culver Co. (1974)
Most recently applied in Molecular Dynamics, Ltd. v. Spectrum Dynamics Med. Ltd. (July 2025)
Applied most in the District Circuit Circuit (47 decisions)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 9 U.S.C. § 202 · 9 U.S.C. § 203 · 9 U.S.C. § 207
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.
The Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards of June 10, 1958, shall be enforced in United States courts in accordance with this chapter.
Editorial notes U.S. Code · Office of the Law Revision Counsel
Effective Date
Section 4 of Pub. L. 91–368 provided that: “This Act [enacting this chapter] shall be effective upon the entry into force of the Convention on Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards with respect to the United States.” The Convention was entered into force for the United States on Dec. 29, 1970.