ABSTRACT: Arbitrations in which State and State entities are parties bring about a myriad of considerations. The enactment of laws containing specific authorization for public entities to enter into arbitration agreements has somewhat reduced that debate in Brazil. But new questions arise, such as whether the arbitration to which a State is a party should be different from an arbitration in which all parties are private entities. It is known that when the State is a party in a judicial court dispute, there are special rules that benefit the State, aiming at the reestablishment of a procedural equilibrium with the privat e party. This article discusses whether there should be differences between the arbitral proceedings in which the State is a party and those involving only private parties, and whether such differences may represent a condition necessary for the State to embrace arbitration.