AR'BITRA'TION, INTERNATIONAL. The settlement of disputes between states by judges of their own choosing and in conformity with their respective rights. Arbitration tribunals may be special or general, temporary or perma nent, restricted or open. It is essential that the contracting states formally agree to refer their differences to an independent tribunal and bind themselves to abide by its award. The persons or states chosen as arbitrators should formally accord their consent and accept the obligation. The reference is usually made by special agreement signed on behalf of the con tending parties, stating the questions to be sub mitted, summarizing the points of law or fact involved, defining the limits of the arbitration, and in many cases indicating the course of pro eednre. It may result either from a general treaty, a special or arbitration treaty, or an arbitral clause inserted in a treaty providing for this method of settlement of disputes, or a protocol ( q.v.) of an international congress to which the particular states were parties.
Arbitration, while not unknown to the ancient world, is largely an outgrowth of the complex in ternational relations of the Nineteenth Century, and the consequent development and recognition of international duties and liabilities. The atti tude of Greek civilization toward the barbarian world rendered the application of methods of conciliation impossible; while the employment of arbitration among the Greeks themselves was confined rather to disputed questions touching upon religion, commerce, boundaries, and the possession of contested territory between the several states than to great political questions. The .Amphictyonie Council, while primarily a deliberative body, later assumed distinct polit ical functions, and became the tribunal for the settlement of various differences, though its sen tences lost their effectiveness through the im potence of that body to enforce their execution. The foreign policy of Rome aimed at universal conquest, and so from the outset precluded the employment of referendum methods, since arbitra tion presupposes a conflict between independent states. During the Middle Ages, under the in fluence of religious and feudal ideas, arbitra tions were frequent. With the breaking up of the Roman Empire, the predominance of the popes, as delegates of God, from whom all sov ereignty emanates, constituted them the natural judges of all international causes. and brought to their tribunal many of the differences between kings and peoples. So strongly (lid this idea impress itself upon the times that the great prel ates were often chosen as voluntary arbitrators, though perhaps oftener on occasions involving private interest and internal policy than on those of actual international conflict. One of the most celebrated of arbitration decis ions is that of Pope Alexander VI.. tracing an imaginary line from pole to pole in his division of all lands discovered in the New World between Spain and Portugal. Even after the decline of
papal supremacy, Gregory XV. acted as arbi trator of the question of the "Valtelline" forts in the Seventeenth Century. and Pope Clement XI. gave the casting vote as umpire between Louis XIV. and Leopold I., the chosen arbitra tors by Article 8, of the Treaty of Ryswick. Under the feudal system, vassals were natural ly predisposed to look to their lords for the determination of their conflicting claims. The efforts of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire to succeed to the position of the popes in this regard never resulted in more than an occasional recognition of their jurisdiction— never of their supremacy. With the establish ment of absolute monarchies, arbitration as a method of settlement of differences. naturally declined.
The change in international relations pro duced by modern means of transportation, with the resultant complex social and political inter course and the vast economic• loss involved in modern war, has tended more and more to the employment of the method of arbitration in in ternational disputes, and its gradual recognition as the most humane, economical, and enduring method for their determination. The questions submitted involve not only the adjustment of claims relating to the rights of nations as be tween themselves, but also those of individuals against foreign governments. During the Nine teenth Century, including cases now pending, there have been over one hundred and thirty important arbitrations, not to mention almost as many more minor commissions fm the settle ment of purely financial claims. Both in the numbers and the questions involved the United States and Great Britain have unquestionably led the way. The most important of these, and one forming a landmark in the history of arbi tration, is the Joint High Commission, which met at Geneva in 1S71 and determined the ques tions relating to the .4 /ohunia Claims (q.v.). This was only one of the four articles of the Treaty of Washington (q.v.), submitting to arbi tration matters then in dispute between the two countries. Besides actual causes sub mitted to such tribunals for settlement, various international conferences have been held and conventions adopted, sonic of the most significant of which arc: The proposal for the establishment of a per manent court of arbitration, made by the Com mittee of the International Law Association, which met at Brussels in 1895; the Intel- parliamentary Conference on Arbitration and Peace, at Brussels in 1897; the proposal for the arbitration for the settlement of disputes be tween the States of North, Central, and South America, signed at Washington, 1890; the Anglo American Arbitration Treaty, signed at Wash ington, January 11, 1897, but never ratified by the Senate of the United States: the Italy-Argen tine Republic General Treaty of Arbitration, signed at Rome, July 23, 1898; The Hague Con vention, adopted at a plenary meeting of the Peace Conference at The Hague, July 29, 1899.