Cite as: 514 U. S. 52 (1995)
Thomas, J., dissenting
biguous, the majority essentially accepts petitioners' argument. Volt itself found precisely the same argument irrelevant, however, and the majority identifies no reason to think that the state law governing the interpretation of the parties' choice-of-law clause supports a different result.
The majority claims that the incorporation of New York law "need not be read so broadly" as to include both substantive and procedural law, and that the choice of New York law "is not, in itself, an unequivocal exclusion of punitive damages claims." Ante, at 60. But we rejected these same arguments in Volt, and the Garrity rule is just the sort of "state rul[e] governing the conduct of arbitration" that Volt requires federal courts to enforce. 489 U. S., at 476. "Just as [the parties] may limit by contract the issues which they will arbitrate, so too may they specify by contract the rules under which that arbitration will be conducted." Id., at 479 (citation omitted). To be sure, the majority might be correct that Garrity is a rule concerning the State's allocation of power between "alternative tribunals," ante, at 60, although Garrity appears to describe itself as substantive New York law.2 Nonetheless, Volt makes no distinction between rules that serve only to distribute authority between courts and arbitrators (which the majority finds unenforceable) and other types of rules (which the majority finds enforceable). Indeed, the California rule in Volt could be considered to be one that allocates authority between arbitrators and courts, for it permits California courts to stay arbitration pending resolution of related litigation. See Volt, supra, at 471.
2 The New York Court of Appeals rested its holding on the principle that punitive damages are exemplary social remedies intended to punish, rather than to compensate. Because the power to punish can rest only in the hands of the State, the court found that private arbitrators could not wield the authority to impose such damages. Garrity v. Lyle Stuart, Inc., 40 N. Y. 2d, at 360, 353 N. E. 2d, at 796-797.
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