Most arbitration clauses are agreed late in a negotiation, copied from a previous contract and not read again until a dispute arrives. By then their weaknesses are expensive: an uncertain seat, an institution that no longer exists under the name given, or a tiered procedure whose steps nobody can prove were followed.
This paper sets out the choices that matter most. It explains how the seat determines which courts can support or set aside an award, why the governing law of the arbitration agreement deserves its own sentence, and how the number of arbitrators, the language and the rules should follow the size and character of the likely disputes.
It closes with drafting for group structures and linked contracts, where consolidation and joinder decide whether related claims can be heard together, and with a short model clause and checklist that commercial teams can use before signature.