Compliance with formal requirements for presentation of applications for enforcement of foreign arbitral awards, prescribed by Article 839 of the Code of Civil Procedure and Article 4 of the New York Convention, constitutes a necessary procedural prerequisite for valid commencement of proceedings and not a condition of the action, such formal requirement for procedural admissibility of the claim must subsist at the moment of commencement of proceedings.
Defect in formal requirements prescribed for enforcement of foreign arbitral awards must be detected ex officio by the court, independent of exceptions or assertions by the opposing party, constituting a defect that prevents valid procedural admissibility of the claim.
Production of an unauthenticated photocopy of a foreign arbitral award is insufficient for purposes of procedural admissibility of the enforcement claim, independent of lack of challenge to its conformity with the original, the award must be produced in original or authentic copy according to the requirements of Article 4 of the New York Convention.
C
ourt of Appeal of Rome, 5 June 2025, N. 3527
The censure of omitted ruling under Article 829(1)(12) of the Code of Civil Procedure does not subsist when the arbitrator has ruled on the exception or claim considering it without merit, there being possibly an error in law (error in iudicando) founded on challenge to evaluation of facts and evidence, which is uncensurable in nullity challenge proceedings.
Declaration of nullity of arbitral award for non-observance of rules of law "in judging" is admissible only if circumscribed within the same boundaries as violation of law opposable by cassation appeal under Article 360(1)(3) of the Code of Civil Procedure. Inadmissible is the ground that challenges evaluation of facts and evidence acquired in arbitral proceedings, since such evaluation is contractually entrusted to the institutional competence of arbitrators.