CYPRUS Law and Practice Contributed by: Kyriacos Scordis, Alexandros Gavrielides, Chara Pieri and Demetris Yiannakou, Scordis, Papapetrou & Co LLC
13.3 Circumstances to Challenge an Arbitral Award In accordance with the ICAL, an arbitral award may be challenged (and set aside) within three months from the date on which the party mak- ing the application received the award on the following grounds: • one of the parties in the arbitration agreement lacked contractual capacity or the arbitration agreement was not valid according to the governing law; • one of the challenging parties in the arbitra- tion was not given proper notice in relation to the appointment of an arbitrator or the arbitration proceedings or was deprived of the rights to present its case; • the composition of the tribunal or the whole arbitral process was in violation of what had been agreed by the parties; • the subject matter of the dispute is not arbi- trable under Cypriot law; or • the award does not comply with the Cypriot public order. Pursuant to the provisions of Cap. 4, the court may also set aside an arbitral award on the ground of improper conduct on the part of the arbitrator. 13.4 Procedure for Enforcing Domestic and Foreign Arbitration Both Cap. 4 and the ICAL provide for the rec- ognition of an arbitral award. As far as domes- tic arbitrations are concerned, Cap. 4 provides that an arbitral award may be recognised by the Cyprus courts following a leave of the court
which may be granted upon application of the party concerned. In a similar vein, an award issued in an international arbitration may be rec- ognised pursuant to the provisions of the ICAL, following an order of the court issued upon a written application which is accompanied by the original award or a certified copy of it. Once recognised, an arbitral award may be enforced in the same ways as a court judgment. 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform Since 2021, the Cypriot legal system has undergone a major overhaul through a series of reforms aiming to build a modern, accessible and efficient system of administering justice. These reforms include: • the establishment of two new specialised courts (namely the Commercial and Admi- ralty Courts) and a three-tier court system as described above; • the establishment of a training school for judges; • the introduction of a new digitalised platform for the digital filing and administration of courts’ cases; and • the introduction of the new CPR. 14.2 Growth Areas Intellectual property, data protection and energy- related claims are three areas likely to see more growth, as well as a shift away from classical litigation to arbitration/mediation.
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