In many countries, arbitration is a way of resolving disputes that is more flexible and better meets the needs of the parties. Italy is no exception.

In Italy, the norms on arbitration are enshrined in the Code of Civil Procedure. These rules are currently valid in the edition of 2023 – after the so-called “Cartabia reform”, the main novelties of which have been the following changes:

The current version of Article 818 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure grants arbitrators the right to apply interim measures. Prior to the Cartabia reform, they had no right in this sense. In the Russian Federation, the arbitration court, at the request of either party, may apply interim measures that it considers necessary (Part 1 of Article 17 of Federal Law No. 382-FZ dated December 29th, 2015 “On Arbitration (Arbitration Proceedings) in the Russian Federation”).

The second part was added to Article 822 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure. According to it, if a dispute is to be resolved on the basis of the rules of law, the parties have the right to independently choose the law or the rules of law. They may express their choice in the arbitration agreement or in any written agreement concluded prior to the award. If the parties made no choice in this sense, the arbitrators shall apply the law or the rules of law determined by them on the basis of conflict of laws criteria that they consider applicable. In other words, the arbitrators are not obliged to follow the Italian conflict of laws rules set out in the Law No. 218 of May 31st, 1995. A similar rule is contained, for example, in Part 1 of Article 31 of Federal Law No. 382-FZ dated December 29th, 2015 “On Arbitration (Arbitration Proceedings) in the Russian Federation”.

It is curious to note that currently Part 1 of Article 822 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure explicitly enshrines the right of the parties to prefer that their dispute should be resolved “according to equity” (“secondo equità”) rather than in accordance with the rules of law. Russian legislation does not contain such provisions and allows an arbitration court to resolve a dispute only in accordance with certain rules of law (Part 1 of Article 31 of Federal Law No. 382-FZ dated December 29th, 2015 “On Arbitration (Arbitration Proceedings) in the Russian Federation”).

Another consequence of the Cartabia reform is reducing the time limit for challenging the arbitration award. Prior to the reform, there existed two periods for challenging arbitration award: 90 days from the date of announcement of the award (“short term”) and one year from the date when the award was signed by the arbitrators (“long term”). According to the new version of Article 828 of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure, the time limit for filing an application for challenging the arbitration award is 6 months from the date when the award was signed by the arbitrators. In the Russian Federation, as a general rule, an application for annulment of award may be filed within a period not exceeding three months from the date of receipt of the award being challenged by the party to the arbitration proceedings who filed the application (Part 4 of Article 230 of the Code of Arbitration Procedure of the Russian Federation, Part 2 of Article 418 of the Code of Civil Procedure of the Russian Federation).