Arbitration, the decision by a private person of matters of difference submitted to him by the parties. References differ from arbitrations in that they are made with the sanction of the court, or at least are more directly nn-der its control, and are govered by the rules of law more strictly than arbitrations are. The law is not disposed to take away the ordinary means of relief by action or other proceedings at law, unless suitors have clearly signified their intention to give them up in favor of arbitration. The New York court of appeals has held void an article of the constitution of a grand lodge of odd fellows, which created certain members a tribunal to pass upon violations of the rules of the order, with power to forfeit the delinquents' right to property. Even if the defendants had signed such a constitution, the court said it would be against public policy to hold them bound by it, and that courts would not enforce the decision of tribunals created by private compact, except in those cases where the parties had expressly submitted to arbitration definite matters of controversy.

In a recent case in New York city, the court held that the so-called " arbitration clause " in the articles of association of the board of brokers could have no other effect than an ordinary agreement to submit; and the court declined to give a remedy against a member of the board who declined to submit to its jurisdiction, for that was only the exercise of the ordinary power of revocation. - As a general rule, all matters in dispute concerning personal rights which may be the subject of actions may be referred to arbitration; such, for example, as breaches of contracts, differences about partnership affairs, the value of property, and questions of damages in cases of wrongs like assaults, trespass, or slander, where damages might be recovered by suit. Claims relating to real estate might at common law be submitted to arbitration. In such a case an arbitrator might direct that one party convey or release to the other. But a practical objection to this proceeding, so far at least as titles to land are concerned, is that the property in the land cannot pass by the award. In some of the states the statutes relating to arbitrations forbid the submission of certain matters pertaining to real estate.

Thus in New York no submission can be made of claims to the fee or to life estates in realty; but the same restraint is not imposed as to interests in terms for years, nor to controversies as to boundaries, partitions, or the measurement of dower. Nor are equitable rights relating to real estate withdrawn from arbitration. The policy of the statute in these respects has been said in New York to be to withdraw from the unlearned forum of arbitration those questions of title to lands which depend on strict technical rules; and that, since equitable claims even in respect to titles depend rather on the general principles of justice, they may be well submitted. - In general, a crime cannot be withdrawn from the cognizance of the courts. But where a person has a remedy by action for private damages, collateral to the public remedy by indictment, as in cases of assault, libel, or nuisance, he may submit the question of his personal interests to arbitrators. - Persons who are competent to contract are also capable of submitting their affairs to arbitration. It was the general rule at common law that married women could not make a submission, though there were exceptions to that rule in favor of women whose husbands were civilly dead or alien enemies.

But since the enabling acts which have been lately very generally introduced, giving to married women separate estates, and independent powers and capacity to contract in respect to them, they have been held capable of consenting to arbitrations. An infant's submission is at common law, like most of his contracts, voidable by him. But it has been held with regard to such agreements of infants, and of married women too, who had not the liberty of contracting which is conferred by the recent married women's acts, that if an award is made against a party who entered into an arbitration with either of them, it will bind him, even though the woman or the infant cannot be held by it, because he must be presumed to have known that at the outset, and if he did not intend to be bound, he should not have joined in the submission. Whether one partner can bind his copartners by an agreement to arbitrate has been much discussed, and the weight of authority seems to be against his power to do so. But such an agreement may bind the partner who made it, and he may be held for the damages resulting from the refusal of his copartners to perform the award. - In the absence of statutes to the contrary, the submission need not be in any special form, nor even in writing.

But in most of the states, under the statutes on the subject, a submission may bo made a rule of court; that is to say, the parties may agree that the proceeding be entered of record in a court, and then the award upon confirmation has the effect of a judgment of that court, and may be enforced with the same legal remedies provided for judgments. These statutes require the submission to be in writing and executed with certain formalities. The statutes usually require that the arbitrators shall be sworn, and that the witnesses shall be sworn also, either by them or by justices of the peace or other competent persons; and that the attendance of witnesses may be compelled by subpoenas issued either by the arbitrators themselves or by justices or other judicial officers. But it has been held in New York, though its statute requires the arbitrator to be sworn, that this is not an essential prerequisite to his jurisdiction, and that the omission of the oath is only an irregularity. When the submission provides for the appointment of an umpire by the arbitrators to decide between them if they disagree, this third person should be agreed upon before proceeding with the arbitration. - The hearings by the arbitrators should be on notice to both parties; and if they proceed ex parte and without notice to the party against whom the award is made, it is void.