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Syllabus
Court denied the motion and entered a judgment confirming the award. The Oklahoma Court of Civil Appeals affirmed. While the Tribe's certiorari petition was pending here, this Court decided Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., 523 U. S. 751, holding that an Indian tribe is not subject to suit in a state court—even for breach of contract involving off-reservation commercial conduct—unless "Congress has authorized the suit or the tribe has waived its immunity," id., at 754, 760. On remand for reconsideration in light of Kiowa, the Court of Civil Appeals held that the Tribe here was immune from suit on its contract with C & L. Although noting that the arbitration agreement and the contract language as to judicial enforcement seem to indicate the Tribe's willingness to expose itself to suit on the contract, the court concluded that the Tribe had not waived its suit immunity with the requisite clarity. The court therefore instructed the trial court to dismiss the case.
Held: By the clear import of the arbitration clause, the Tribe is amenable to a state-court suit to enforce an arbitral award in favor of C & L. Like Kiowa, this case arises out of the breach of a commercial, off-reservation contract by a federally recognized Indian Tribe. C & L does not contend that Congress has abrogated tribal immunity in this setting. The question presented is whether the Tribe has waived its immunity. To relinquish its immunity, a tribe's waiver must be "clear." Oklahoma Tax Comm'n v. Citizen Band Potawatomi Tribe of Okla., 498 U. S. 505, 509. The construction contract's arbitration provision and related prescriptions lead to the conclusion that the Tribe in this case has waived its immunity with the requisite clarity. The arbitration clause requires resolution of all contract-related disputes between the parties by binding arbitration; ensuing arbitral awards may be reduced to judgment "in accordance with applicable law in any court having jurisdiction thereof." For governance of arbitral proceedings, the clause specifies American Arbitration Association Rules, under which "the arbitration award may be entered in any federal or state court having jurisdiction thereof." The contract's choice-of-law clause makes it plain enough that a "court having jurisdiction" to enforce the award in question is the Oklahoma state court in which C & L filed suit. By selecting Oklahoma law ("the law of the place where the Project is located") to govern the contract, the parties have effectively consented to confirmation of the award "in accordance with" the Oklahoma Uniform Arbitration Act, which prescribes that, when "an agreement . . . provid[es] for arbitration in" Oklahoma, jurisdiction to enforce the agreement vests in "any court of competent jurisdiction of this state." On any sensible reading of the Act, the District Court of Oklahoma County,
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