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 To that end it repealed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