Common-Law and Statutory Arbitration: Problems Arising from Their Coexistence

Abstract

Arbitration as a means of settling disputes between parties is by no means a recent innovation in the law. Its use, however, gives rise daily to new and diverse problems. Dean Wesley Sturges, perhaps the country's foremost scholar on the subject of arbitration, and a colleague, Richard E. Reckson, explore one of such problems-the relationship between common-law and statutory arbitration systems. The Article includes an analysis of the interchangeability of common-law and statutory enforcement remedies and the interchangeability of common-law and statutory remedies with respect to awards. The authors also include a discussion of the problems that arise where the parties invoke an arbitration statute but fail to comply fully therewith, and the possibilities of the award's validity as a common-law award.