Paul Smith v. H&S

To death and taxes, one may add the following certainty to life. If, on its face, an agreement contains competing jurisdiction clauses, one purporting to grant exclusive jurisdiction to the courts and another purporting to require arbitration, the arbitration clause will be enforced. Invoking Paul Smith Ltd v. H&S International Holding Inc,1 courts often reason that the best reconciliation of the competing clauses is to uphold the arbitration clause while construing the clause conferring jurisdiction on the courts as simply identifying the courts having supervisory jurisdiction over the arbitration. This

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