Court of Appeal of Milan, judgment of 16 June 2026, No. 1887

The challenge of an arbitral award does not constitute an ordinary appeal but is confined to the determination of the grounds of nullity set out in Article 829 of the Code of Civil Procedure, and is a limited review admissible only for specified procedural errors and for non-observance of the rules of law.
In proceedings to set aside an arbitral award, the review by the Court of Appeal is restricted to a control of legality that may never extend to a re-examination of the facts of the case, not even by way of review of the adequacy and consistency of the reasoning followed by the arbitrators.
A plea of nullity of the award for non-observance of substantive rules of law is admissible only if confined within the same limits as a plea of violation of law that may be raised in an appeal to the Court of Cassation under Article 360(1)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Article 829(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure, as amended by Article 24 of Legislative Decree No 40 of 2006, applies to all arbitration proceedings commenced after 2 March 2006; however, in order to determine whether a challenge for violation of the rules of law on the merits is admissible, the law to which Article 829(3) refers must be identified as the law in force at the time the arbitration agreement was entered into.