9 U.S.C. § 202
Section 202 · Agreement or award falling under the Convention
Amended 1 time on record
Applied in 228 court decisions — leading case McDermott International, Inc. v. Lloyds Underwriters of London (1991)
Most recently applied in Molecular Dynamics, Ltd. v. Spectrum Dynamics Med. Ltd. (July 2025)
Cases citing this section usually also cite 9 U.S.C. § 201 · 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.
An arbitration agreement or arbitral award arising out of a legal relationship, whether contractual or not, which is considered as commercial, including a transaction, contract, or agreement described in section 2 of this title, falls under the Convention. An agreement or award arising out of such a relationship which is entirely between citizens of the United States shall be deemed not to fall under the Convention unless that relationship involves property located abroad, envisages performance or enforcement abroad, or has some other reasonable relation with one or more foreign states. For the purpose of this section a corporation is a citizen of the United States if it is incorporated or has its principal place of business in the United States.