Arbitration

Arbitration, the decision of a case or matter in dispute by a person not a judge in a court of law, but a private individual chosen by the parties. Very frequently more than one arbitrator is chosen, and should they disagree as to their decision (which is called their "award") a third person known as the umpire is called in. The awards of arbitrators or umpires are held to be binding and cannot be dissolved or transgressed except by consent of the court or of a judge. This method of settling disputes is frequently employed by persons who wish to avoid the delay and expense of legal proceedings; and questions of law, breaches of contract, disputes between workmen and employers, are all very often referred to arbitration. All felonies and offences which are of a public nature, however, cannot be referred to arbitration, it being deemed advisable that they should be punished and tried in a public court. There has lately been manifested a tendency towards International Arbitration, i.e. settling disputes between nations by means of arbitration instead of by war. The most notable instance of this was the reference of the dispute between England and the United States concerning the Alabama (q.v.) to the Geneva tribunal.