arbitration

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The process by which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person or group appointed by mutual consent or statutory provision.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The hearing and determining of a cause between parties in controversy by a person or persons chosen or agreed to by the parties.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The hearing and determination of a cause between parties in controversy, by a person or persons chosen by the parties.
• noun a bond which obliges one to abide by the award of an arbitration.
• noun the operation of converting the currency of one country into that of another, or determining the rate of exchange between such countries or currencies. An arbitrated rate is one determined by such arbitration through the medium of one or more intervening currencies.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun The act or process of arbitrating.
• noun A process through which two or more parties use an arbitrator or arbiter in order to resolve a dispute.
• noun In general, a form of justice where both parties designate a person whose ruling they will accept formally. More specifically in Market Anarchist (market anarchy) theory, arbitration designates the process by which two agencies pre-negotiate a set of common rules in anticipation of cases where a customer from each agency is involved in a dispute.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the act of deciding as an arbiter; giving authoritative judgment
• noun (law) the hearing and determination of a dispute by an impartial referee agreed to by both parties (often used to settle disputes between labor and management)