Challenge proceedings for arbitral awards under Article 827 of the Code of Civil Procedure do not constitute appeal proceedings and do not permit reform of arbitrators' decisions, but exclusively declaration of nullity of the award for causes specifically indicated by law under Article 829 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Nullity proceedings for arbitral awards are characterised by constrained scrutiny and subject to the rule of specificity in formulating grounds, coherent with their rescinding nature and with the necessity of enabling the court and opposing party to verify correspondence of challenges to nullity hypotheses provided by Article 829 of the Code of Civil Procedure.
Challenge of an award for violation of rules of law relating to the merits of the dispute under Article 36 of Legislative Decree 5/2003 presupposes violation of juridical norms, consisting in erroneous application of law to the facts of the case, and postulates explicit allegation of error in the legal principle applied by the arbitrators.
Nullity of an award for contradiction under Article 829(1)(11) of the Code of Civil Procedure presupposes contradiction between different components of the operative part or between reasoning and operative part, whilst internal contradiction between different parts of the reasoning assumes relevance as a defect of the award only when it renders absolutely impossible reconstruction of the logical and juridical reasoning underlying the decision by reason of total absence of reasoning referable to its functional model.