An arbitral award is vitiated by nullity pursuant to art. 829 cod. proc. civ. where the arbitral tribunal, whilst having taken note of the pleading of certain facts constituting the basis of the claim, excluded their determination as a preliminary matter on the ground that criminal proceedings concerning the same facts were pending, thereby effecting an undue restriction of the thema decidendum and an alteration of the causa petendi; such course of action is not comparable to an assessment of the evidence or of the merits of the dispute, but rather constitutes a failure to adjudicate capable of grounding a challenge for nullity of the arbitral award.
The principle of autonomy of civil proceedings in relation to criminal proceedings requires arbitrators to carry out an independent determination of the facts pleaded by the parties, without the mere pendency of criminal proceedings concerning the same facts being capable of justifying a limitation of the arbitral tribunal's cognisance; the only binding effects of a criminal judgment are those exhaustively provided for by statute, with the consequence that the pendency of criminal proceedings cannot in any manner restrict the thema decidendum of the arbitral proceedings.