Comments on the Concept of Arbiter in Roman Law
Comments on the Concept of Arbiter in Roman Law

Summary/Abstract: This paper analyzes the notion of arbiter in Roman law. Based on the legal and literary sources of Roman law, the essay briefly describes the most important features of the legal institution of arbiter. The study emphasises that the notion of arbiter has at least two different meanings in Roman law. On the one hand, an arbiter could describe an expert judge who had special knowledge in a particular field and was entitled to decide the special debate of the parties, wherein the debate did not have a purely legal nature but could concern other issues as well. On the second hand, an arbiter as arbiter ex compromisso could mean a person chosen by the parties in the form of a settlement to decide their legal dispute as an arbitrator. The study also references some important elements of the subsequent fate of the Roman notion of arbiter.

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