compromisum

Compromisum, sometimes seen as compromis or compromissum, is a legal term used to describe a contract by which the parties to a dispute submit their controversy to arbitration rather than to the courts. The form has roots in Roman law and continued through medieval and early modern legal practice. The term derives from Latin compromisittere or compromissum, relating to entrusting or committing the matter to arbitrators.

A compromisum typically identifies the parties, the subject matter of the dispute, the number and method of appointing arbitrs, the seat or locale of arbitration, applicable rules, and the scope of the arbitrators’ authority. It can be a separate instrument or embedded within a larger contract. The instrument creates a binding submission in which the parties consent to be bound by the arbitrators’ award.

Historically, the compromis granted the chosen arbitrators authority to adjudicate the dispute, and the resultant award was generally treated as final and binding, subject to the limited grounds for challenge found in various legal systems. In many jurisdictions, the concept figures in older Latin texts and continental civil-law practice.

In contemporary usage, civil-law jurisdictions still recognize the underlying idea, though modern terminology commonly uses arbitration agreement, submission to arbitration, or an arbitration clause. The essential function remains the same: to substitute private arbitration for judicial resolution. Compromisum should not be confused with a voluntary settlement reached by the parties; the former is a procedural mechanism to submit disputes to arbitration. See also arbitration, arbitral award, arbitration clause.