Cite as: 532 U. S. 411 (2001)
Opinion of the Court
That cogent observation holds as well for the case we confront.3
The Tribe strenuously urges, however, that an arbitration clause simply "is not a waiver of immunity from suit." Brief for Respondent 13. The phrase in the clause providing for enforcement of arbitration awards "in any court having jurisdiction thereof," the Tribe maintains, "begs the question of what court has jurisdiction." Id., at 22. As counsel for the Tribe clarified at oral argument, the Tribe's answer is "no court," on earth or even on the moon. Tr. of Oral Arg. 32-33. No court—federal, state, or even tribal—has jurisdiction over C & L's suit, the Tribe insists, because it has not expressly waived its sovereign immunity in any judicial forum. Ibid.; cf. Sokaogon, 86 F. 3d, at 660 (facing a similar argument, Seventh Circuit gleaned that counsel meant only a statement to this effect will do: "The tribe will not assert the defense of sovereign immunity if sued for breach of contract.").4
3 Instructive here is the law governing waivers of immunity by foreign sovereigns. Cf. Kiowa Tribe of Okla. v. Manufacturing Technologies, Inc., 523 U. S. 751, 759 (1998) ("In considering Congress' role in reforming tribal immunity, we find instructive the problems of sovereign immunity for foreign countries."). "Under the law of the United States . . . an agreement to arbitrate is a waiver of immunity from jurisdiction in . . . an action to enforce an arbitral award rendered pursuant to the agreement . . . ." Restatement (Third) of the Foreign Relations Law of the United States § 456(2)(b)(ii) (1987).
4 Relying on our state sovereign immunity jurisprudence, the United States maintains that "courts must be especially reluctant to construe ambiguous expressions as consent by a Tribe to be sued in state court." Brief for United States as Amicus Curiae 23; see also id., at 25 (arguing that a State's generalized consent to suit, without an express selection of the forum in which suit may proceed, "should be construed narrowly as the State's consent to be sued in its own courts of competent jurisdiction, and not its consent to be subjected to suits in another sovereign's courts") (citing, e. g., Kennecott Copper Corp. v. State Tax Comm'n, 327 U. S. 573 (1946) (State statute authorizing suits against State in "any court of competent jurisdiction" did not waive State's immunity from suit in federal court)). But in this case, as we explained supra, at 419-420, the Tribe has plainly consented to suit in Oklahoma state court. We therefore have
421
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