Wikipedia:ArbCom reform

This is an essay.

It contains the advice or opinions of one or more Wikipedia contributors. This page is not an encyclopedia article, nor is it one of Wikipedia's policies or guidelines, as it has not been thoroughly vetted by the community. Some essays represent widespread norms; others only represent minority viewpoints.

During the ArbCom 2010 election, a candidate, Iridescent, gave the following answer to a question about "what changes, if any, in how ArbCom works would you propose?"

“

A more formal split between policy-making, appeals and Arbcom's traditional dispute-resolution function. If I were in charge I'd split WP:BASC off completely and make it independent of Arbcom, and resurrect a more democratic and representative version of WP:ACPD, leaving Arbcom with its core dispute-resolution remit and as a final court of appeal against the decisions of the two spun-off committees. I couldn't bring these changes about; they'd need a broad consensus across the project (or imposition from above by the WMF). All I can say is that if the community proposed these or similar changes, I'd do everything I could to stop Arbcom blocking the changes.

”

This essay focuses on the idea of splitting off the appeals subcommittee - WP:BASC - and doesn't cover the idea of a more democratic and representative version of WP:ACPD, which is described in a separate essay called WP:RfC Committee.

Before going any further I'd like to emphasize the following isn't necessarily the view of Iridescent or ArbCom in general. Also, just in case the huge banner at the top of the page isn't clear, this isn't a proposed policy, a request for comment or an official announcement by ArbCom - it's just an essay.