Arbitration is the submission of a dispute to an impartial third party for judgement.
Owner contractor disputes that can not be handled by the Architect Engineer, or are beyond the scope of his authority and expertise are destined to end up in court unless an agreement, incorporated in the contract or agreed upon later on, submits the disco ate to a third party for arbitration. Although arbitration is an alternative to litigation, it has not operated completely independent of the judicial system. Courts have been frequently called upon either to challenge the arbitration clause in a contract, or to frustrate an arbitration award. Historically, courts have been hostile to arbitration and viewed it as a threat to their authority. However, this attitude has been continuously changing since the beginning of the twentieth century.