Under the Italian legal system arbitration is governed by the

provisions of Title VIII of the Italian Code of Civil Procedure (Articles

806-840).1 Legislative Decree No. 40 of February 2, 2006 has brought

about the last comprehensive arbitration reform. Among the introduced

changes is the repeal of Chapter VI (Articles 832-838 Code of Civil

Procedure), which established a special and more favorable regime for

international arbitration. The repealed Chapter regulated a type of

arbitration, presenting foreignness elements regarding the parties to the

arbitration agreement or arbitration clause (residence abroad or real seat

abroad of at least one of them at the date of the conclusion of the

arbitration agreement or arbitration clause) or the relationship to which

the dispute relates (a substantial part of the obligations of the relationship

to which the dispute relates has to be performed abroad). The reform had

the indented purpose to extend the more favorable regime for

international arbitration to domestic arbitration. Therefore the Code of

Civil Procedure regulates arbitration without distinguishing between

“domestic” arbitration and “international” arbitration, and does not lay

down an autonomous regime for “international” arbitration. That said, a

reference to arbitration proceedings presenting foreignness elements still

remains in the Italian Code as far as it concerns the annulment of arbitral

awards. According to Article 830 Code of Civil Procedure, whenever the

Court of Appeal (the Italian judge competent in respect of decisions on

challenge for nullity) declares the nullity of the award, the Court of

Appeal decides in principle the dispute on the merits, except where the

parties had decided otherwise in the arbitration agreement or by