§ 1857.Agreement

Section 1857 states the core rule that makes arbitration enforceable in Oklahoma: an agreement in a record to submit an existing or future controversy to arbitration is valid, enforceable, and irrevocable, except on a ground that would let a court revoke any other kind of contract -- fraud, duress, unconscionability, and the like.

The section then splits decision-making authority between the court and the arbitrator. If it's necessary, a court decides whether an agreement to arbitrate exists at all, or whether a particular controversy falls within one. But once that threshold question is settled, the arbitrator decides whether a condition precedent to arbitrability has been met and whether a contract containing a valid arbitration clause is otherwise enforceable -- a division similar to the rule federal courts apply under the Federal Arbitration Act, where a challenge to the contract as a whole generally goes to the arbitrator while a challenge to the arbitration clause itself, or to whether an agreement exists, goes to the court.

Subsection D addresses timing when a party fights the existence or scope of an arbitration agreement in court: the arbitration proceeding may continue while that issue works its way through the court, unless the court orders otherwise. A pending court challenge doesn't automatically freeze the arbitration.