Arbitration is a consensual, private form of adjudication in which parties hand a chosen neutral the power to decide their dispute and, through the New York Convention, enforce the result across more than 170 states. This UpLaw guide follows one invented cross-border dispute through every stage of the arbitral life cycle—from drafting the clause, through constituting the tribunal and running the hearing, to setting aside and enforcing the award. It analyzes the domestic United States regime under the Federal Arbitration Act (separability, delegation, preemption, the class-waiver line of cases, and the narrow grounds for vacatur) alongside the international regime built on the New York Convention and the UNCITRAL Model Law. It locates arbitration on the wider spectrum of alternative dispute resolution, contrasts it with mediation and litigation, and treats recent developments including the UK Arbitration Act 2025, mass arbitration, third-party funding, and the sexual-misconduct carve-out from forced arbitration. Written as a research resource for counsel, executives, and courts, it pairs doctrine with worked hypotheticals and cross-references to the wider UpLaw library.