In contractual arbitration (arbitrato irrituale), the parties intend to entrust the arbitrators with the resolution of the dispute by means of a contractual determination, expressing the parties' own contractual will, rather than through an award capable of being rendered enforceable in accordance with the rules of institutional arbitration proceedings.
The grounds for annulment of a contractual arbitration award (lodo irrituale) listed in Article 808-ter(2) of the Code of Civil Procedure are not exhaustive, it being permissible to seek annulment on the ground of fundamental error and on the basis of other defects of consent that give rise to nullity or voidability of the arbitration agreement, such as incapacity and defects in the consent of the parties or the arbitrators.
A contractual arbitration award (lodo irrituale) may be challenged for fundamental error only where the formation of the arbitrators' will was distorted by a mistaken perception or a false representation of reality and of the factual elements submitted for their examination, and not where the alleged distortion relates to the evaluation of a reality whose elements were correctly perceived.
A contractual arbitration award (lodo irrituale) ordering payment, in order to constitute an enforceable title, requires the prior conduct of proceedings on the merits or, where the subject matter of the obligation falls within the cases provided for by Article 633 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the obtaining of an order for payment (decreto ingiuntivo) by producing the arbitral award together with the arbitration agreement.