Encyclopaedia Britannica > Volume 3, Anatomy-Astronomy

ARB
rbitra- imported from the Roman law without requiring, as in Eno-
tion. land, statutory intervention. From the peculiarities of the
— Scottish system of registration, the decree-arbitral, or deci¬
sion of the arbiter, when recorded in pursuance of the consent
of the parties in their contract of arbitration, or submission
can be enforced as the decree of a court. (j. h. b.) ’
Arbitration, in the Law of England (according to
Blackstone), is “where the parties, injuring and injured, sub¬
mit all matters in dispute, concerning any personal chattels
or personal wrong, to the judgment of two or more arbitra¬
tors ; who are to decide the controversy : and if they do not
agree, it is usual to add, that another person be called in as
umpire (fmperator), to whose sole judgment it is then re¬
fen ed . or frequently there is only one arbitrator originally
appointed. The decision must be in writing (unless other-
wise expressly provided in the submission), and is called an
award ; and thereby the question is as fully determined, and
the right transferred or settled, as it could have been by the
agreement of the parties or the judgment of a court of law
or equity.
There were, however, many inconveniences attending this
mode of proceeding; and in the year 1698, the legislature ac¬
cordingly interfered and passed the act9th and 10th Will. III.,
cap. 15, which enacted that, “for promoting trade, and render-
ing the awaids of arbitrators the more effectual in all cases,
for the final determination of controversies referred to them
by merchants and traders, or others, concerning matters of
account or trade, or other mattersall merchants and others,
desiring to end any controversy, suit, or quarrel (for which
there is no other remedy but by personal action or suit in
equity), by arbitration, may agree that their submission of
their suit to the award or umpirage of any person shall be
made a rule of any of the courts of record, and may insert
such agreement in their submission ; which agreement being
proved by the affidavit of one of the witnesses thereto, the
coui t shall make a rule that such arbitration or umpirage pur¬
suant to such submission shall be conclusive ; and, after such
rule made, the parties disobeying the award shall be liable to
be punished, as for a contempt of court; unless such award
shall be set aside, as procured by corruption or undue means
in the arbitrators or umpire, to be proved on oath to the
court, before the last day of the next term after the award
is made.
An application for an attachment for not performing an
award, may be resisted at any time for defects appearing on
the face of the award itself; for such an award, after that
time, might be pleaded in bar to any action brought upon it,
although it cannot be set aside for such defects after the end
of the next term. Submissions of disputes to arbitration
niay be by consent of the parties, or with the interposition
of a court of justice ; by rule of court, or order of a judge,
when a cause is pending, either by bond, agreement in writ- •
mg, or by parol. A verbal agreement, however, to abide by
an award cannot be made a rule of court. Nor can matters
purely criminal be submitted to the decision of an arbitrator.
And by the 12th and 13th Viet. c. 45, §§ 12-15, the provi¬
sions of the former statutes as to arbitrations are extended
to controversies and disputes, for which the remedy is by
appeal to a court of general or quarter sessions of the peace.”
lastly, although the right of real property cannot pass by
a mere award, yet if a party be awarded to convey land, and
refuse, he will be liable to an action, or to an attachment for
not performing the award.
1 he agreement of reference must be expressed with great
care and accuracy;—provisions should be inserted giving
power to either party to make the submission a rule of court,
to enable the court to refer the matter back to the same or to
another arbitrator ; and in case of the death of either party
before award, for its making and delivery to his representa¬
tives ; and also as to the costs, which are usually directed to
ARB
rence and as to those of the cause to afode the event
award; and a certain day should be appointed on or before
"■h,ch the arbitrator is to make his aiird, with a^wer to
such arbitrator to enlarge the time. P ™
When arbitrators have the power of electing an umpire
hey may choose him, and call in his assistance as soon as
they begin to take the subject into consideration ; and this
is the more convenient practice, as it secures a decision upon
a single investigation of the controversy.
As to the award; it must be in pursuance of the submis¬
sion, and embrace all the matters submitted, and not extend
beyond it in the subject-matter, in persons, in time, or in par¬
ticular circumstances ; it must be certain ; it must make a
final end and determination of all matters contained in the
submission ; it must be mutual, that is, it must not be en¬
tirely of things to be performed by one party, without such
things being in satisfaction of the matters in difference ; and
finally, it must not be unreasonable, illegal, or impossible to
be effectuated.
Formeily, a submission to arbitration, being a mere autho¬
rity, might be revoked at any time before execution, by an
instrument of as high a nature as that by which the submis¬
sion was created. But now, by the Law Amendment Act
(3d and 4th Will. IV., cap. 42), the submission to arbitration
by Rule of Court, or Judge's order, or order of Nisi Prius,
or if there be an agreement to make the submission a Rule of
Court, cannot be revoked by any party thereto, without leave
of the court or a judge. The death, however, of either party,
before award is a revocation of the authority, unless otherwise
provided in the submission ; and so also is the marriage of a
female before aw ard ; the marriage operating as a civil death
to all her rights as a, feme sole.
Under this statute the attendance of witnesses, or produc¬
tion of documents before the arbitrator, may be compelled by
a rule of court, or order of a judge, on payment of expenses
and loss of time; and the arbitrators are empowered to ad¬
minister oaths to the witnesses, where it is so agreed or or¬
dered by the rule or order of reference. Any witnesses fail¬
ing to attend are deemed to be guilty of contempt of court,
or giving false evidence guilty of perjury.
The court or judge may also, in the cases within the sta¬
tute, enlarge the time for an arbitrator to make his aw^ard.
As to the mode of enforcing an award, see Attach-
MENT' , (R. M—M.)
ARBOIS, a town of France, department of Jura, for¬
merly Franche-Compte, famous for its wines. Pop. 6370
Long. 5. 47. E. Lat. 46. 55. N.
ARBON, a town of Switzerland, canton of Thurgau,
chief of the circle of the same name. It contains 1100 in¬
habitants, and has some trade in cotton goods. It is on the
Lake of Constance. Long. 9. 25. E. Lat. 42. 27. N.
ARBOR, in Mechanics, the axis or spindle of a machine,
as of a crane or a windmill. Also that part of a machine
which sustains the rest.
ARBROATH, or Aberbrothock, a seaport and manu¬
facturing town of Scotland, in the county of Forfar, 17 miles
north-east of Dundee, 15 miles E.S.E. of Forfar, and 60
miles N.N.E. from Edinburgh, situated on the North Sea,
at the mouth of the river Brothock, 12 miles north-west of
the Bell-Rock lighthouse, in Lat. 56.34. N. Long. 2. 35. W.
Arbroath was early celebrated for its abbey, founded by
\\ illiam the Lion in 1178, and dedicated to the famous
1 homas a Becket, archbishop of Canterbury. It was cre¬
ated a royal burgh in 1186, and the charter was renewed in
1589. King John of England granted it very unusual pri¬
vileges ; for, by charter under the great seal, he exempted
it a teloniis et consuetudine in every part of England, except
London. The founder of this abbey was buried there, but
there are no remains of his tomb. The monks belonged to