10.3 Arbitration

Meaning: settlement by a binding award of arbitrators appointed by the parties — jurisdiction by consent: the compromis (the special agreement submitting the dispute), the compromissory clause (the treaty's arbitration clause), or the post-dispute agreement. Nature: a hybrid — the parties' instrument staffed by adjudicators; the award's bindingness (res judicata between the parties); the consensual pedigree distinguishing it from a standing court. History and importance: the Alabama Claims arbitration (1871–72) — the modern founding: the US–UK Civil-War claims (the Alabama's commerce-raiding built in Britain) settled by the Geneva tribunal — the neutral-duties rules articulated (due diligence in preventing hostile fitting- out) and compensation paid; the "arbitration movement" and the Hague Conventions 1899/1907 — the Permanent Court of Arbitration (the standing registry and panel at the Peace Palace, available at the parties' consent — permanent machinery for ad hoc jurisdiction, the institution's paradox). The modern faces: the boundary-commission and maritime-delimitation arbitrations; ICSID (the investor-state consent architecture); UNCLOS Annex VII arbitration. Merits and demerits: party-control and expertise vs. cost, delay, and the consent-threshold (no compulsory general jurisdiction — arbitration's deepest limit).