An informal arbitral award, being the product of the parties’ free exercise of contractual autonomy and having legal effects referable to the contractual sphere, may be reviewed by the ordinary courts only on the exhaustive grounds laid down in Article 808-ter of the Code of Civil Procedure, namely for defects that have vitiated the free formation of contractual consent; any challenge based on errors of law, whether in the evaluation of evidence or with respect to the suitability of the ruling to settle the dispute, is precluded.
In informal arbitration, the adversarial principle need not take the form of strict procedural stages; it suffices that the parties’ opportunities to assert and deduce were available, in whatever manner and at whatever time, in relation to the elements relied upon by the arbitrator in rendering the decision.
A challenge to an award based on questions concerning the ritual or informal nature of the arbitration is inadmissible where those questions are raised for the first time on challenge, not having been raised in the course of the arbitral proceedings under Article 817 of the Code of Civil Procedure.