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Porto Court of Appeal | Action for Annulment of an Arbitral Award | Time Limit for Completion of Proceedings | Duty to State Reasons | Case #128

Porto Court of Appeal | Action for Annulment of an Arbitral Award | Time Limit for Completion of Proceedings | Duty to State Reasons | Case #128
Case nr. 298/20.8YRPRT
28-01-2021
LINK DGSI

Summary:

I. Article 43 of the Voluntary Arbitration Law establishes the maximum period within which an arbitration proceeding must be concluded, and the respective award must be notified to the parties. Thus, the provision of the CICAP Regulations which establishes a period after the conclusion of the hearing, within which the arbitrator must issue the award and notify the parties, is neither comparable to such legal provision nor does it generate the same consequence.

II. The time limit in article 17 of CICAP does not replace, in the proceedings of the arbitral tribunal, the time limit specified in Article 43 of the Voluntary Arbitration Law. Exceeding it does not generate the effects set out therein (forfeiture of the arbitral proceedings) and in Article 46 of the same law (the annulment of the arbitral award).

III. The extent of the duty to state reasons for arbitral awards cannot be defined by referring to the synonymous duty applicable to state court judgements and should be determined by taking into account the specificities of the arbitral process and its objectives of expeditiousness, simplicity and informality. At the same time, the reasoning should have the minimum content required to enable an understanding of the meaning, reasons, and rationale followed by the arbitrator in the interpretation of the evidence.

Summary kindly prepared by Avani Agarwal (final year law student at NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, India; Avani Agarwal may be contacted by email: avaniagarwal28@gmail.com