MALTA Law and Practice Contributed by: Antoine Cremona, Louis Cassar Pullicino, Clement Mifsud-Bonnici and Yasmine Ellul, Ganado Advocates
requested by the parties within the parameters out - lined above. 10.3 Recovering Interest and Legal Costs In both domestic and international arbitration, the Act specifies that the costs of arbitration shall in princi - ple be borne by the unsuccessful party, reflecting the “loser pays” principle. However, this rule is not abso - lute and it is at the discretion of the arbitral tribunal to apportion the costs, taking into account the particular circumstances of the case. In accordance with Article 50 of the Act, the term “costs” includes: • the fees of the tribunal; • travel and other expenses incurred by each arbitra - tor; • costs of expert advice and other assistance required by the tribunal; • travel and other expenses of witnesses approved by the tribunal; • costs for legal representation and assistance of the successful party if such costs were claimed during the arbitral proceedings, and only if the tribunal deems such costs to be reasonable; and • any fees and expenses payable to the MAC. Unless otherwise agreed by the parties, an arbitral tri - bunal may include interest at a reasonable rate in any monetary award, whether for a liquidated or unliqui - dated amount. This interest can apply to the whole or any part of the awarded sum and for any period between the cause of action’s date and the award’s date. Additionally, the tribunal may direct that interest is payable from the date of the award or a later speci - fied date. In practice, interest is often awarded at a rate of 8% simple interest per annum, which is the standard statutory rate under Maltese law.
The party making the application must show that either: • a party to the arbitration agreement was under some incapacity; • the agreement is not valid under the law that the parties have stipulated or, failing any indication thereon, under the law of Malta; • the party making the application was not given proper notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the arbitral proceedings, or was otherwise unable to present their case; • the award deals with a dispute not contemplated by or not falling within the terms of the submission to arbitration, or contains decisions on matters beyond the scope of the submission to arbitration, provided that, if the decisions on matters submit - ted to arbitration can be separated from those not so submitted, only that part of the award which contains decisions on matters not submitted to arbitration may be set aside; or • the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the arbitral procedure was not in accordance with the agreement of the parties, unless such agreement was in conflict with a provision of the Act from which the parties cannot derogate or, failing such agreement, was not in accordance with the Act. An arbitral award may also be set aside if the court finds that: • the subject matter of the dispute is not capable of settlement by arbitration under the law of Malta; or • the award is in conflict with the public policy of Malta. An application for setting aside may not be made after three months have elapsed from the date on which the party making that application had received the award or, if a request had been made for correction, interpretation, or an additional award, from the date on which that request had been disposed of by the arbitration tribunal. Recourse against an international arbitral award may be made to the Court of Appeal by an appeal on a point of law only if the parties to the arbitration agree - ment have expressly agreed that such right of appeal
11. Review of an Award 11.1 Grounds for Appeal
Recourse to the national courts against an internation - al arbitral award may be had only by an application for setting aside in accordance with specific provisions provided by the Act.
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