A statutory arbitration clause drafted in permissive terms, providing that disputes “may” be referred to an arbitral tribunal, is nevertheless operative where invoked by one of the parties, since the expression used cannot, as a matter of law, have any meaning other than that of reserving to the arbitrators the non-negotiated resolution of the dispute.
The referral of a dispute to contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale) under an express clause is intended to assert the inadmissibility of the claim and does not raise a question of jurisdiction, which would arise only where referral to arbitration were invoked.