ARBITRATION. In Scotland the sys tem of arbitration is a modification of that of the Roman law. The submission, by which the parties agree to abide by the de cision of an arbiter, is a regularly executed contract, and it requires all the solemni ties peculiar to the execution of deeds in Scotland. According to the practice by which, on the consent of the parties to that effect embodied in its substance, a contract may be registered for execution, the submission may contain a clause au thorizing the decree to be pronounced on it to be registered for execution; and when so registered, the arbiter's decision is in the same position as the decree of a court. It was formerly usual to embody a clause of registration for execution against the arbiter if he failed to give a decision. This practice is now disused, but it is still held, according to the doctrine of the civi lians, that an arbiter who has accepted the submission can be judicially compelled to decide. Where there were two arbiters, and action was raised against one of them, either to concur with the other or name an oversman (umpire), " the court, without entering on the question bow far a sole arbiter is bound to decide, were clear that against one of two arbiters the conclusions of the action were ill-founded."--( White
v. Fergus, 7th July, 1796, M. 633.) The decree arbitral must be executed with the usual solemnities of written deeds in Scotland. A submission in which the ar biters are not named is not binding on the parties. If there be more than one arbiter, the decree is not valid unless they be una nimous. An oversman may be named in the submission, or the arbiters may be empowered to choose one. It is a con dition precedent to any reference to an oversman, that the arbiters are not una nimous, and the proceedings of an overs man are null if there is no difference of opinion. The oversman's decree must bear that the arbiters differed in opinion. A time during which the submission is to be in force may be fixed with or without a power of prorogation. It has become a practice that when a blank space is left in the submission for the period of its con tinuance, that period is held to be a year. Where there is no such blank, it is presumed that the submission subsists for the period of what is called " the long prescription," viz. 40years.