Arbitration Arbitration Awards and Enforcement 1 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Under the New York Convention (1958), what is required for an arbitral award to be enforceable in a signatory country?
- The award must be approved by the seat country's Supreme Court
- The award must be made in writing and signed by the arbitrators in a country that is party to the Convention (Correct answer)
- Both parties must be corporations
- The dispute must involve more than $1 million
Correct answer: The award must be made in writing and signed by the arbitrators in a country that is party to the Convention
The New York Convention requires that the award be in writing, signed by the arbitrators, and rendered in a Convention signatory state to qualify for enforcement.
Question 2: What are the grounds for refusing enforcement of a foreign arbitral award under Article V of the New York Convention?
- The enforcing court disagrees with the arbitrator's legal reasoning
- Limited grounds such as incapacity, improper notice, excess of authority, public policy, or non-arbitrability (Correct answer)
- Enforcement can be refused simply if the losing party objects
- Awards over five years old cannot be enforced
Correct answer: Limited grounds such as incapacity, improper notice, excess of authority, public policy, or non-arbitrability
Article V provides an exhaustive list of narrow grounds for refusing enforcement, including procedural defects, public policy violations, and non-arbitrability.
Question 3: Under the FAA, what is the time limit for filing a motion to vacate a domestic arbitration award?
- 30 days
- 90 days
- 3 months (Correct answer)
- One year
Correct answer: 3 months
FAA Section 12 requires that a motion to vacate an arbitral award be served within three months of the award's delivery.
Question 4: Which of the following is NOT a valid ground to vacate an arbitral award under FAA Section 10?
- Award procured by corruption or fraud
- Evident partiality of an arbitrator
- Arbitrators exceeded their powers
- The arbitrator made a legal error in applying the law (Correct answer)
Correct answer: The arbitrator made a legal error in applying the law
A legal error by the arbitrator is generally not a valid ground for vacatur under the FAA; courts do not review the merits of arbitral decisions.
Question 5: What is a 'reasoned award' in arbitration?
- An award that includes the arbitrator's factual findings and legal reasoning (Correct answer)
- An award based solely on settlement negotiations
- An award that can be appealed to a court of appeals
- An interim award pending final resolution
Correct answer: An award that includes the arbitrator's factual findings and legal reasoning
A reasoned award includes the arbitrator's explanation of the factual findings and legal basis for the decision, as opposed to a bare award that simply states the outcome.
Question 6: What is 'correction of an award' in arbitration?
- Reopening the merits of the dispute
- Fixing clerical, typographical, or computational errors without reconsidering the substance (Correct answer)
- Substituting a new arbitrator to reconsider the decision
- Appealing the award to a higher arbitral body
Correct answer: Fixing clerical, typographical, or computational errors without reconsidering the substance
Correction of an award allows the tribunal to fix non-substantive errors such as typos or calculation mistakes without revisiting the merits of the decision.
Arbitration Arbitration Awards and Enforcement 1
Under the New York Convention (1958), what is required for an arbitral award to be enforceable in a signatory country?