The Arbitration Agreement constitutes the relinquishment of an important right to have the dispute resolved judicially and creates others rights. The rights it creates are the right to establish the process for resolving the dispute. In their arbitration agreement, the parties can select the rules that will govern the procedure, the location of the arbitration, the language of the arbitration, the law governing the arbitration, and frequently, the decision-makers, whom the parties may choose because of their particular expertise in the subject matter of the parties’ dispute. The parties’ arbitration agreement gives the arbitrators the power to decide the dispute and defines the scope of that power. In essence, the parties create their own private system of justice. The parties’ arbitration agreement is frequently contained in a clause or clauses that are embedded in the parties’ commercial contract. The agreement to arbitrate is thus entered into before any dispute has arisen, and is intended to provide a method of resolution in the event that a dispute will arise. However, if there is no arbitration clause in the parties’ contract, and a dispute arises, at that time the parties can nonetheless enter into an agreement to arbitrate, if both sides agree. Such an agreement is called submission agreement. In light of the important rights that are extinguished when the parties agree to arbitration, this paper aims to examine the question of the validity of arbitration agreement. In others words what are the characteristics of a valid arbitration agreement? What does a valid arbitration agreement imply as legal effects? Arbitration is a creature of consent, and that consent should be freely, knowingly, and competently given Therefore, to establish that parties have actually consented, many national laws, as well as the New York Convention, require that an arbitration agreement be in writing
Keywords: Arbitration Agreement Validity, Commercial, Competence-Competence, International
