Posted on

Corporate arbitration: the doctrine is (finally) right, its application is wrong

Corporate arbitration is a major topic for Italian arbitration practitioners.  The Italian Supreme Court developed a doctrine and laid down principles not entirely right.  Some lower Courts tried to take a more appropriate approach, but to no avail (I discussed this issue, for instance, in this post).

A recent decision issued by the Court of first instance of Bologna (No. 1378 of 13 June 2019, Italian text availabe here) ostensibly applied the right doctrine (or the doctrine I deem right); nonetheless, it came to the wrong conclusion.

Continue reading "Corporate arbitration: the doctrine is (finally) right, its application is wrong"

Posted on

New arbitration rules of Milan Chamber of Arbitration

The Milan Chamber of Arbitration published its new arbitration rules.  These new rules apply to arbitration proceedings commenced after 1st March 2019 unless the parties have agreed, under Article 832 of the Italian code of civil procedure, that the arbitration proceedings shall be subject to the arbitration rules in force at the time of the stipulation of the arbitration clause (however, in this case, the Arbitration Chamber may refuse to manage the proceedings).

The new rules are available here.

Continue reading "New arbitration rules of Milan Chamber of Arbitration"

Posted on

Corporate arbitration and insolvency proceedings

After a year-long pause, a new article is available on Arbitration in Italy!  It concerns a matter already analysed in the past: the relationship between arbitration and insolvency proceedings and, in particular, between arbitration and bankruptcy proceedings (please see here and here, as well as my article on YAR – Young Arbitration Review).

Continue reading "Corporate arbitration and insolvency proceedings"

Posted on

Arbitrability of corporate disputes

A recent decision of the Court of Appeal of Catanzaro (no. 1478 of 22 September 2016, Italian text available here) sums up the current doctrine of arbitrability of corporate disputes.

Continue reading "Arbitrability of corporate disputes"

Posted on

Corporate disputes

Corporate disputes are capable of arbitration, under Italian law, if they concern negotiable rights (Art. 34(1) of Legislative Decree no. 5 of 17 January 2003). Therefore, the question is: what does "negotiable rights" mean?

The Court of first instance of Florence established an interesting doctrine of arbitrability of corporate disputes, which is enunciated in a recent decision (no. 2906 of 8 September 2016, Italian text available here).

I already examined that doctrine (in this post); moreover, the issue of arbitrability of corporate disputes has often been  mentioned on this blog (for instance, in this post, in this one and this one too).

Continue reading "Corporate disputes"

Posted on

Corporate arbitration and transfer of shares

If the Articles of Association of a company contain an arbitration clause, does that clause apply to disputes concerning the transfer of shares? This topic was recently discussed in the Court of first instance of Catania (decision no. 3127 of 7 June 2016, Italian text available here), which has replied negatively to this question.

Continue reading "Corporate arbitration and transfer of shares"

Posted on

The return of the twin-track approach

A recent decision of the Court of first instance Naples (decision no. 4874 of 19 April 2016, Italian text available here) follows the (outdated) line of cases, according to which two different types of corporate arbitration would be possible: on the one hand, corporate arbitration pursuant to article 34(2) of Legislative Decree 5/2003 (which states that "the arbitration clause shall specify the number of the arbitrators and how to appoint them. In any case, the arbitrators shall be appointed by a third party unrelated to the company; otherwise, the clause shall be deemed as null and void (…)”); and on the other hand, common arbitration pursuant to Article 808 of Italian Code of Civil Procedure. This is the so-called "twin-track", which has already been discussed in this post.

Continue reading "The return of the twin-track approach"

Posted on

Corporate arbitration: and yet it moves!

A recent decision by the Court of first instance of Florence (decision no. 1129 of 21 March 2016 of III Civil Chamber of the Court of first instance of Florence, Italian text available here) re-opens the debate on the topic of arbitrability of corporate disputes, and it is particularly notable for the clarity of its reasoning.

We previously talked about this topic on several occasions (for instance, on this post, on this one and this one as well).

Continue reading "Corporate arbitration: and yet it moves!"

Posted on

Arbitration and directors’ remuneration

The Supreme Court addressed the arbitrability of disputes between companies and directors concerning the directors’ remuneration (decision no. 2759 of 11 February 2016 of the I Civil Chamber, Italian text available here).

Continue reading "Arbitration and directors’ remuneration"