Court of Appeal of Milan, order of 20 July 2026 (R.G. 00001369/2026)

The proceedings for a declaration that a foreign award is enforceable, governed by artt. 839 and 840 cod. proc. civ., have a limited subject-matter and concern neither the validity of the award nor the procedural rules which governed its making, the court being required to verify only the formal regularity of the award, save for the occurrence of the circumstances exhaustively listed in art. 840, co. 3, cod. proc. civ., of the non-arbitrability of the dispute under Italian law, or of the contrariety of the provisions of the award to public policy.
The power of review conferred upon the court seised of the recognition and enforcement of a foreign arbitral decision can never translate into a review of the reasoning, nor of its logic and coherence on the merits.
A defect consisting in the making of the award beyond the limits of the arbitration clause may not be further relied upon in proceedings for recognition of the foreign award where it has already been submitted to, and rejected by, the court of the State of origin.
An order to pay damages made by an arbitral tribunal does not infringe the limit of international public policy where it is not shown that the compensation is excessive in relation to the harm suffered by the victim and performs, beyond its compensatory function, a punitive and deterrent function, with a dissuasive purpose directed at the community at large for the protection of rights of primary and public importance.
The examination carried out at the exequatur stage must bring out the features of the conflict which stands in the way of the free circulation of the foreign instrument, such conflict constituting the exception to the rule, all the more so where the right has been finally established by the foreign court and what is at issue in the domestic legal order is the distinct question of enforceability.