Proceedings challenging an award comprise a first rescinding stage (fase rescindente), directed to ascertaining any grounds of nullity and to setting the award aside, and a second rescissory stage (fase rescissoria), which follows the setting aside and in the course of which the ordinary court reconstructs the facts on the basis of the evidence adduced.
An application to set aside an award for nullity under artt. 828 et seq. cod. proc. civ. constitutes rescinding proceedings and only potentially rescissory ones, the rescissory stage being confined to the cases set out in art. 830, co. 2, cod. proc. civ. and conditional upon the parties not having excluded it; outside those cases the court hearing the challenge must confine itself to setting the award aside and the parties must return to the arbitrators by virtue of the original arbitration agreement.
Only where the court of appeal rules by examining, with rescissory effect, the claim originally brought in the arbitration does the judgment so given constitute a title entitling recourse to enforcement; where the court merely finds the award to be null, even in part, without re-examining the merits, the award remains a valid enforceable title in the part not affected by the declaration of nullity.