On 8 July 2022 has been issued an article of professor Bělohlávek on „Characteristics of an Arbitral Award as a Deed, Legal Consequences of Falsification Thereof and Defense Against Falsification“ in the periodical „Právník“ („The Lawyer“) published by the Institute of State and Law of the Czech Academy of Science.

Although arbitration has become part of common practice as a way of settlement of private disputes, there are still confusions about the nature of the arbitral awards as a deed (public document, resp. public deed / deed issued by an authority). However, it is precisely with regard to the prevalence of arbitration that another and not negligible phenomenon which does appear, namely the falsification of arbitral awards. Doubts in this regard exist, in particular, because Czech domestic case-law, made it more than a decade ago that arbitration fulfils the same functions as the adjudication of civil disputes by courts of common jurisdiction. An arbitral award which cannot be reviewed by other arbitrators shall take effect on the date of service to the parties equal to the effect of a final court decision and it shall be enforceable by the courts. Both doctrine and court practice classify the arbitral tribunals as a so-called “other authority”. However, despite the nature of the arbitration and its function, and even in view of the fact that the arbitral award constitutes an enforceable title, it cannot be concluded that it is a deed in terms of a public document. The paper deals with individual aspects of this issue, as well as ways of defending against falsifications of arbitral awards from the private law and civil procedure perspective.

220812-Belohlavek_ArbitralAward_as_document-deed-falzum.pdf