Arbitrations are essentially private litigation - that is, procedures contractually agreed to resolve dispute by (usually) commercial parties, to the (attempted) exclusion of the courts. The parties can range from two or more sophisticated actors where the arbitration agreement is with respect to their contract, to - on the other hand - 'contracts of adhesion' with one sophisticated contractor on one side and any number of (usually consumers) parties on the others. Arbitration is a common feature of international contract law.
In Ontario, there is an Arbitration Act which sets out basic rules for arbitrations, a sort of 'minimum standards' statute to avoid the worst excesses to which the phenomenon is subject. I find most of the interesting litigation involves consumer issues, where contractual provisions attempt to compel arbitration in international 'venues' that favour the larger party. Class actions have tried to counter this obvious, though often legal, abuse. Arbitration is also a common feature of labour law, though those case are located in the 'Labour' section.