While the legislation was being drafted and debated, Mr. McCain had supported an arcane provision helpful to Northpoint's case by broadly defining signal interference.

For some corporations, relatively arcane provisions of the legislation might have considerable repercussions.

Bell Atlantic opposes an arcane provision for "dialing parity," which would allow customers to place toll calls through AT&T without having to dial extra digits.

As a result, the tax code has been gradually loaded up again with arcane provisions - at least one of which, a tax break for pharmaceutical companies operating in Puerto Rico, was supported in 1992 by Mr. Bradley.

These smaller firms posed no threat of stealing the client because as specialists they were limited to the arcane provisions of the Bankruptcy Code.

All the parties involved agreed that there needs to be serious updating of the Railway Labor Act of 1926, whose arcane provisions govern the way contracts are negotiated.

A 15-Pound Agreement The outcome tonight did not turn on the arcane provisions of the 15-pound agreement, which would abolish some tariffs immediately and phase out others over 5, 10 or 15 years.

The dispute revolved around officials' application of the so-called one-in-three rule, one of a multitude of arcane provisions in the city's Civil Service code that are baffling to outsiders but precious and familiar to city workers.

Under the arcane provisions of New York State's election laws, Democratic leaders can choose his successor to run in the general election if Mr. Weiss wins today.

Mr. Cole also scoffed at the repeated Republican argument that all Mr. Gingrich had done was to stumble over an "arcane provision of tax law."