Wikibooks:Arbitration Committee

The Arbitration Committee is a standing group of wikibookians who can impose binding decisions on disputes. The Arbitration Committee is invoked as the last step of the wikibooks dispute resolution process, and should only be treated as a last resort.

Extent of Power
The Arbitration Committee is able to intercede on inter-user disputes and behavioral problems among Wikibookians. The Arbitration Committee is neither qualified nor able to make binding decisions on matters of book content. For disputes in that area, the editorial board should be used instead, however, in exceptional cases that could destroy an entire book, such as in a book on origin of species where creationists are locked in battle with evolutionary biologists or vice versa, the Arbitration Committee may order a binding review by the Editorial Board.

Depending on the dispute, the Arbitration has the authority to:
 * Formally censure users
 * Set conditions for participation
 * Protect pages from being edited for prescribed lengths of time
 * Block users from editing, up to and including infinite blocks
 * Remove admin tools from admins

These powers should never be used except in response to specific arbitration cases brought to the committee.

Membership
The arbitration committee members may be selected by the community from the pool of active admins. Because the Arbitration Committee may be called upon to enact bans on users, or to protect pages, non-admins are not eligible to be members of the Committee.

There is no limit on the number of users who can be on the arbitration committee, and no finite term lengths for people who do serve on the board. All members can be elected or removed by community vote at any time. The number of votes necessary to elect an admin to the committee should be double the average number of votes used to elect an admin in the same time period. Once the necessary number of votes are received, the new member will be confirmed by the existing board members (if any).

No member of the committee may participate in an arbitration hearing in which they are a disputant.

Past Arbitrations/Members
For a list of current and past arbitration cases, and to submit a new case for review by the arbitration committee, see Arbitration.

Arbitration Process
Dispute resolution must be completed before arbitration commences.

The specific process and timeframe of the arbitration will be determined by the Arbitration committee. However, all arbitration hearings must adhere to the process in Arbitration, in particular they should:


 * 1) Allow all parties to make a statement concerning the events of the dispute and
 * 2) Result in a verdict in a timely manner.

It is up to the discretion of the committee as to whether there will be rebuttals, and whether or not to allow the parties in the dispute to participate in the sentencing.