In contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale), a breach of the duty of confidentiality imposed on the arbitrators by the arbitration rules does not render the award voidable pursuant to Article 808-ter, paragraph 2, No. 4, of the Code of Civil Procedure, where the parties, notwithstanding having referred to the rules in the arbitration clause, have not expressly characterised compliance with that duty as a condition of validity of the award and the rules themselves provide for voidability only in specifically indicated circumstances.
The duty of confidentiality of arbitrators, where provided for by the arbitration rules with reference to the content and subject matter of the deliberations through which the arbitrators reach their decision, concerns what was discussed in private deliberation and is not breached where the arbitrators, in the course of hearing the parties, confine themselves to obtaining the parties' views on issues which are the subject of the claim without anticipating the decision and without having previously deliberated among themselves on such issues.
In contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale), the principle of due process must be observed in its substantive essence, ensuring that each party has the opportunity to present its own case and to have full knowledge of the other party's case, to exercise procedural rights on an equal footing and to set out the respective submissions, even in the absence of a rigid and predefined procedural framework.
The separate hearing of the parties in contractual arbitral proceedings (arbitrato irrituale) does not constitute a breach of the principle of due process, pursuant to Article 808-ter, paragraph 2, No. 5, of the Code of Civil Procedure, where the parties have been previously made aware of the respective claims and objections and have had the opportunity to respond to the matters addressed in the course of the hearing.