Interim Measures Under Italian Arbitration Law

29.09.2013 - Article 818 of the Italian Civil Procedural Code provides that the arbitral tribunal cannot grant "[...] seizure orders and any other precautionary measures [...]". This provision still comes from the old dis-favor of the Italian legislator for the arbitration compared with the State Court proceedings and accordingly the party will have recourse to Courts for any requests of interim measures during the arbitration proceedings.

The matter is highly debated in Italy for several reasons.

In general terms there are precautionary measures which may affect third parties and that therefore could be of prejudice for the third party who is not a party in the arbitration. There are however also precautionary measures which are directed only to one of the parties of the arbitration and there would be no reason to prohibit the granting of precautionary measures against them.