[Legal settlement of disputes, arbitration and binding opinion; it is all the same]

In a dispute between co-operating parties who cannot come to an agreement, an important question is: who will be approached to give a decision in this dispute: the civil court, arbitrators or a 'binding advisor' (i.e. an impartial third person who gives an absolute ruling). In the Netherlands in principle the civil court is charged with civil jurisdiction, but it is authorized in certain situations to charge private persons with it. The consent to charge jurisdiction to private persons must have been laid down explicitly in the contract. Both ways of jurisdiction have advantages and disadvantages. The choice one makes, depends on personal matters. Arbitration is a simple, informal and (not always) cheap procedure, in which parties are more involved than in the civil court procedure.