ABSTRACT
Arbitration is defined to be “the hearing and determination of a case in controversy by a person chosen by the parties or appointed under statutory authority” (Webster’s Ninth New Collegiate).1 By this definition, not only do the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an arbitrator, but there is also the “determination” of an outcome: the dispute does not end in impasse; there is a resolution that both parties are obliged to accept. This was true in biblical times, too:
If a case is too baffling for you to decide, be it a controversy over homicide, civil law, or assault-matters of dispute in your courtsyou shall promptly repair to the place which the LORD your God will have chosen, and appear before the levitical priests, or the magistrate in charge at the time, and present your problem…you shall carry out the verdict that is announced to you. (Deut. 17:8-10)
Thus does arbitration have a venerable history. This is not the case in bargaining, even with an appraiser, as I showed
in Chapter 2. For example, a dispute is not settled under the Penalty Appraisal Procedure unless both players overlap the appraiser (and necessarily each other); it is not settled under the Expansive Appraisal Procedure unless at least one player overlaps the appraiser. If both players overlap each other (i.e., ) but not the appraiser (either or ) under the Penalty Appraisal Procedure, or neither player overlaps the appraiser ( ) under the Expansive Procedure, there is no settlement.
