Constitution, Arbitration & Courts

In "Constitution, Arbitration and Courts", arbitration is examined as it began, as an extra-judicial mechanism for resolving disputes. Private arbitration predates the public court system. The ancient Sumerians, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all had a tradition of arbitration. Communities introduced arbitration systems intended to resolve their communal conflicts in accordance with custom, equity and internal law. Arbitration threatened a momentous basis of judicial business, as well as judicial jobs linked to the courts' caseloads. Courts perceived the growing status of arbitration as a favoured means for resolving business disputes and as a threat to their power. Courts have managed to get in the way of the arbitration process and to gain a role in arbitration. Thus, courts have taken the role of the guardian of public policy in a state, and so arbitration is considered not to be a safe, independent and fully alternative dispute mechanism.