2. Section 20 of the UAA provided that the law was applicable only to agreements entered into after the effective date of the Act. The Drafting Committee rejected this approach in the RUAA. If it were followed, such a section would cause two sets of rules to develop for arbitration agreements under state arbitration law: one for agreements under the UAA and one for agreements under the RUAA. This is especially troublesome in situations where parties have a continuing relationship that is governed by a contract with an arbitration clause. There would be no mechanism, such as Section 3(b) for these parties to opt into the provisions of the RUAA without rescinding their initial agreement. Section 3(c) also sets a time certain when all arbitration agreements will be governed by the RUAA. The time between when parties may opt into coverage under the RUAA and when parties' agreements must be governed by the RUAA will give parties a reasonable amount of time in which to learn of and adapt their arbitration agreements to the changes made by the RUAA.

3. Section 3 operates in conjunction with Section 31, the effective date of the Act; Section 32, that repeals the UAA or present arbitration statute in a State as of the delayed date which is the same delayed date as in Section 3(c), and Section 33, a savings clause that preserves actions or proceedings accruing before the RUAA takes effect and provides that, subject to Section 3, an arbitration agreement made prior to the effective date of the RUAA is governed by the UAA.

The approach taken in Sections 3, 31, 32, and 33 may cause a problem in some States that do not allow one statute, the RUAA, to amend another statute, the UAA. Some States may have to amend its current UAA so that it will not apply to arbitration agreements made after the effective date of the RUAA but before the delayed date of repeal of the UAA. Another possibility that a State with such a problem may consider is to incorporate the repealed UAA into the RUAA.

4. The following is an illustration of how Sections 3, 31, 32, and 33 operate. Assume that a state legislature passes the RUAA and, in accordance with Section 31, makes the RUAA effective on January 1, 2005, and, in accordance with Sections 3(c) and 32, chooses a date of January 1, 2007, [referred to as the "delayed date" in Sections 3(c) and 32] by which all arbitration agreements in the State must conform to the RUAA and on which the UAA will be repealed. Under Sections 3(a) and 31 any agreements entered into after January 1, 2005, would be covered by the RUAA. Under Sections 3(b) and 33 for the period between January 1,