Three Centuries of Commercial Arbitration in New York: A Brief Survey 1956 Washington University Law Quarterly 1956

1956 Wash. U. L. Q. 193 (1956)
Three Centuries of Commercial Arbitration in New York: A Brief Survey

handle is hein.journals/walq1956 and id is 203 raw text is: THREE CENTURIES OF COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION
IN NEW YORK: A BRIEF SURVEY*
WILLIAM CATRON JONESt
Except for its use in connection with labor disputes, arbitration is
generally regarded as an extraordinary substitute for the adjudication
of disputes in law courts. The proponents of arbitration argue, inter
alia, that it is cheaper, quicker, and less acrimonious than a law suit,
and enables parties to have issues decided by experts in a particular
industry who have knowledge of trade usages, customs, and the like of
that industry., In reply to this, it is asserted that arbitration is fre-
quently a drawn-out process since many cases drag on for months or
even years and sometimes end up in courts anyway.2 Further, it is
argued that arbitration is often a means whereby persons or groups in
a dominant position in a trade or industry can force persons dealing
with them to submit disputes to prejudiced tribunals, or at any rate,
to tribunals that will not upset the prevailing power structure. All of
these arguments for or against arbitration, it should be noted, are in
terms of its present utility or lack of it. Indeed, arbitration is gener-
ally presented by its proponents as something new, something whose
case must be advocated before the unbelievers, and the replies are in
the same terms. It is rarely treated as an established institution.
Yet it is commonplace among those who write about arbitration that
it has been in use for centuries. No one, however, seems to have con-
sidered it worthwhile to investigate the history of this subject in a sys-
tematic way to see just how it has been used in the past. This has been
true even though a complete understanding of the subject can be
gained only by a study of its history as well as of its present use. Ac-
cordingly, it was decided by the University of Chicago Law School, in
connection with its research on the problem of commercial arbitration
as a whole, to investigate the history of arbitration. This study re-
sulted.
*The writer was employed as a research associate by the University of Chicago
Law School to work on its research project on commercial arbitration in 1954-55.
Most of the material used in this paper was gathered at that time and it is used
here with the permission of Professor Soia Mentschikoff, the director of the
project. The opinions expressed are, however, those of the writer and not neces-
sarily those of the law school.
t Assistant Professor of Law, Washington University School of Law.
1. See Phillips, A General Introduction (to a symposium on arbitration), 83
U. PA. L. Rnv. 119-21 (1934).
2. Ibid.
3. See, c.g., Ellenbogen, English Arbitration Practice, 17 LAW & CONTEMP.
PROB. 656-59 (1952); Wolaver, The Historical Background of Commercial Arbitra-
tion, 83 U. PA. L. REV. 132 (1934).

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