Georgios I Zekos 
Constitution, Arbitration and Courts [PDF ebook] 

In "Constitution, Arbitration and Courts", arbitration is examined as it began, as an extrajudicial mechanism for resolving disputes. Private arbitration predates the public court system. The ancient Sumerians, Persians, Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans all had a tradition of arbitration. Communities introduced arbitration systems intended to resolve their communal conflicts in accordance with custom, equity and internal law. Arbitration threatened a momentous basis of judicial business, as well as judicial jobs linked to the courts’ caseloads. Courts perceived the growing status of arbitration as a favored means for resolving business disputes and as a threat to their power. Courts have managed to get in the way of the arbitration process and to gain a role in arbitration. Thus, courts have taken the role of the guardian of public policy in a state, and so arbitration is considered not to be a safe, independent and fully alternative dispute mechanism.