The serious grounds required by art. 840 cod. proc. civ. for staying the enforceability of a foreign award exist where the party, obliged under the award to pay a significant sum of money, is exposed, pending the opposition proceedings, to the risk that that sum may not be recoverable.
The court hearing the opposition to the decree declaring a foreign award enforceable, in deciding upon the application for a stay, carries out a comparative assessment and balancing between the creditor’s interest in immediate enforcement and the debtor’s interest in avoiding the serious harm flowing from provisional enforcement, and may make the stay conditional upon the provision of adequate security.
A ground of complaint which in substance amounts to a criticism of the legal correctness of the arbitral decisions, in particular as to the interpretation of the arbitration clause, the application of the principle of res judicata and the characterisation of the arbitral proceedings, is inadmissible in proceedings opposing the recognition of a foreign award.