In many respects, mankind has had arbitration since it first organized itself into tribes and societies. Some scholars contend that ancient Roman, Greek, and Egyptian civilizations developed arbitration rules before creating formal courts, although even as history moved forward, few arbitration-focused institutions had enforcement authority, preferring instead to remove disruptive players from the system, often based around the guild model.

1. The Early History and Evolution
of Commercial Arbitration
By Shahram Shirkhani

2. Introduction
• In many respects, mankind has had arbitration since
it first organized itself into tribes and societies.
Some scholars contend that ancient Roman, Greek,
and Egyptian civilizations developed arbitration
rules before creating formal courts, although even as
history moved forward, few arbitration-focused
institutions had enforcement authority, preferring
instead to remove disruptive players from the
system, often based around the guild model. By the
17th century, arbitration had proven difficult, as few
rules were in place to enforce arbitration rulings or
to keep the parties involved.

3. Commercial Arbitration
• The organization and formalization of arbitration
outside the guild model is thought to have begun with
the Common Law Procedure Act of 1854.
Through the Common Law Procedure Act of 1854, the
English Parliament connected informal arbitration with
the court system, providing a means for compliance. This
concept had already moved abroad with the American
colonists. For example, George Washington wrote an
arbitration council into his will to resolve any disputes.
Most scholars trace the beginning of formal commercial
arbitration in the United States, however, to the National
Labor Relations Act of 1935 and President Roosevelt’s
War Labor Board.

4. Conclusion
• Meanwhile, international arbitration took its
first steps with the Geneva Convention on the
Execution of Foreign Arbitral Awards of 1927,
and, later, the New York Convention on the
Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign
Arbitral Awards of 1958, which is the ruleset by
which the majority of international arbitration is
conducted.