Punitive Damages and Punitive Damages 'in Disguise' in International Commercial Arbitration

Moving from the rationale of punitive damages and the equivalence between arbitration and judicial function, this chapter firstly addresses the main difficulties that arbitrators may face in granting punitive damages without infringing upon their main duty to render an enforceable award. Problems of inconsistency between the sources that shape the arbitration legal framework and of incompatibility with the public policy may arise when it comes to deciding if punitive damages are to be accorded in the instant case. This chapter also deals with damages awarded in case of breach of an arbitration agreement in the attempt to draw a difference, under the light of the right of access to justice, between punitive damages or damages that are punitive ‘in disguise’, and to evaluate whether the awards or the judgments granting such damages may circulate within the European judicial space.