Enacted as a special interest bill in 1925, the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) positioned arbitration well among specialized merchant communities. Its principles relating to the legitimacy of arbitration contracts and the limited judicial supervision of arbitral awards laid the foundation for a more detailed and effective legal regulation of arbitration. Despite the advanced character of its original content, the FAA was never significantly updated by the U.S. Congress, and the standing statutory provisions did not take into account the widening scope of arbitral jurisdiction and its...