Extraordinary Means of Objection to Arbitral Awards; Revisiting the Concept of Finality of Arbitration Awards

Abstract

Arbitration is the process during which the parties to a dispute grant third party/parties the authority to settle the dispute and undertake to accept the issued award as final and binding. One of the most important advantages of an arbitration award is its finality, which could naturally reduce costs and processing time. This said, it is not always the case that arbitral awards are final and the legislator has prescribed certain corrective mechanisms. Assuming that ordinary appeal procedures are not available for arbitral awards, this article sets out to examine the possibility of applying extra-ordinary methods of appeal envisaged in Civil Procedures Act to arbitral awards. The extraordinary methods include appeal to the supreme court, retrials and appeal by third-parties. In domestic arbitration, where the parties are Iranian nationals, appeal by third-parties has been explicitly recognized, and in international commercial arbitration, retrial has in certain cases been envisaged, and appeal by third-parties is possible. Of course, court judgments on the request for annulment of arbitration awards could be subject to ordinary and extraordinary appeal mechanisms.

Keywords

• arbitration
• extraordinary means of appeal
• retrial
• third party appeal