Delegation Clause
A provision assigning questions of arbitrability to the arbitrator rather than a court.
Where parties clearly and unmistakably delegate gateway questions, a court must send even the challenge to the arbitration agreement's validity to the arbitrator — unless the challenge is directed specifically at the delegation clause itself. That carve-out is the doctrinal opening claimants use in mass arbitration disputes, and appellate courts have invalidated delegation clauses that route arbitrability to a regime whose own procedures are unconscionable.
See also
- Gateway QuestionsThreshold issues of whether a valid agreement exists and whether it covers the dispute.
- ArbitrabilityWhether a given dispute may be resolved in arbitration at all.
- Mass Arbitration ProtocolThe bespoke procedural regime a clause imposes once mass filings are triggered.
- UnconscionabilityThe contract defence that voids terms that are both oppressively imposed and unreasonably one-sided.
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