Italy - National Report - World Arbitration Reporter
Author(s):
Domenico Di Pietro
Eva Paloma Treves
Page Count:
32 pages
Media Description:
1 PDF Download
Published:
May, 2015
Description:
Originally from World Arbitration Reporter (WAR) - 2nd Edition
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I. INTRODUCTION: ARBITRATION IN HISTORY AND
LEGISLATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE1
A. History and Current Legislation on Arbitration
1. Historical evolution of law relating to arbitration
Italy has experienced a remarkable legislative development in
favour of arbitration over the last twenty years. The Italian
legislation on arbitration features most of the indicators that are
normally employed to assess whether a jurisdiction should be
regarded as “arbitration friendly”. Indeed, as it will be highlighted
below, Italian law contains provisions that are at the forefront of the
global trend aimed at facilitating the settlement of disputes through
arbitration. Like many other pieces of legislation, be it national or
international, Italian arbitration law could benefit from additional
legislative changes. Particularly, it may benefit from the adoption of
rules, such as the UNCITRAL Model Law, that would make Italy’s proarbitration
stance immediately evident to any foreign analyst. Such
“make-up” would necessarily entail the removal of provisions of
little practical importance, such as the prohibition for arbitrators to
issue interim measures that are often used to question the whole
quality of Italy’s arbitration law.
The first piece of legislation aimed at modernising arbitration was
enacted in 1983 through Law no. 28 of 9 February 1983 that aspired to
enhance the circulation of Italian awards abroad. However, also in light
of its uncertainties regarding the challenge phase of the award, it was
only in 1994 that Italian Law clearly entered into a more international
perception of arbitration. Indeed, by Law no. 25 of 5 January 1994, the
Italian Legislator adopted several provisions that would bring Italy in
line with the most advanced pieces of domestic law on arbitration. In
particular, it was the first time that the Legislator provided for specific
provisions on international arbitration.2
The most recent step towards the modernisation of arbitration
was taken in 2006 by Law no. 40 of 2 February 2006. This law
significantly amended Chapter VIII of the Italian Code of Civil
Procedure (CCP). The Government’s intention was to have a more
liberal regulation of international arbitration. To that end it repealed
the specific provisions on international arbitration that had been
introduced in 1994 and created an arbitration law that would be
applicable both to national and international arbitration.3
applicable both to national and international arbitration.3