In matters of recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, the review of compliance with procedural public policy does not extend to any violation of foreign procedural provisions protecting a party's participation in proceedings, but is limited solely to manifest and disproportionate infringements of the right to adversarial proceedings and to a defence, such as to undermine in practice the very substance of the right to defend oneself, with the consequence that compliance with the procedural forms established by the arbitration rules accepted by the parties excludes the possibility of a violation of procedural public policy.
The exequatur proceedings for a foreign award pursuant to Article 840 of the Code of Civil Procedure do not permit the recognising court any review of the merits of the arbitral decision, nor of the correctness of the reasoning, nor of the arbitrator's assessment of the evidence, the review for contrariety to public policy being required to be conducted exclusively with reference to the prescriptive content of the operative part, albeit reconstructed in the light of the recitals and the reasoning of the award.
The award of costs of the arbitration proceedings made by the arbitrator in accordance with the rules of the arbitral institution designated by the parties does not constitute a violation of public policy capable of justifying refusal of exequatur, given that acceptance of the arbitration rules entails the submission of the parties to the rules provided therein, including in relation to costs.