17.2 Essential Elements of Arbitration

A valid arbitration agreement — in writing (the clause in the contract or the separate submission): the dispute's present or future reference; separable (the clause surviving the main contract's invalidity — the competence-competence doctrine: the arbitrators decide their own jurisdiction); The parties' consent — arbitration is jurisdiction-by-agreement: no arbitration without consent, and the court proceedings' stay on the clause's operation (the court's minimal- intervention policy); An arbitrator or arbitral tribunal — the parties' chosen adjudicator(s) acting judicially (the natural-justice floor applies to the private tribunal: the hearing, the impartiality, the reasoned decision); A dispute — an existing or arising difference within the agreement's scope; The award's finality and bindingness — the decision dispositive of the referred dispute, enforceable by execution, challengeable only on the narrow statutory grounds.