Arbitration Subpoenas: Jurisdiction And Venue Basics For Enforcement Made Simpler

The statutory mechanism for judicial enforcement of an arbitration "subpoena" - in actuality, an arbitrator's summons to give evidence -- is simply by petition to "the United States District Court for the district for which such arbitrators, or a majority of them, are sitting.." Federal Arbitration Act ("FAA") § 7, 9 U.S.C. § 7. But U.S. law regarding the limited subject matter jurisdiction of its federal courts, coupled with Congress' omission to provide for such jurisdiction in chapter 1 of the FAA, makes for significant potential complexity at the threshold of enforcing an arbitral subpoena issued in connection with a domestic arbitration. Fortunately, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals recently simplified such matters a bit.