Setting aside Hungarian arbitral awards without time limit?

Abstract

I. Introductory remarks The Hungarian Code on Arbitration, regulating both national and international arbitration, Act Nr. LXXI of 1997 (hereinafter: HAA), is in the overwhelming majority of its provisions in conformity with the world’s mainstream legislation on arbitration by implementing the Model Law on Arbitration created by UNICITRAL in 1985. There is only a small, however very important couple of rules, in which the Hungarian lawmaker deviated from the Model Law. 1 This article deals with one of these rules, which happens to be of outstanding significance for the legal practice and in a broader sense for the Hungarian arbitration community and Hungary as place of arbitration: the time limit for instituting setting aside procedures set forth in sec. 55 (1) HAA. The provision in question reads as follows: (1) The party, furthermore any person who is affected by the award, may file for action–within sixty days of the date of delivery of the award of the arbitration tribunal–at the court of law to have the award set aside if: a) the party having concluded the arbitration agreement was lacking legal capacity or competence; b) the arbitration agreement is not considered valid under the law to which the parties have subjected it, or in the absence of such indication, under Hungarian law;