As
with any legal act, an arbitral award may be relied upon against third parties.
In its most elementary form, the entitlement to rely on this (in French “opposabilité”)
simply means that the situations which result from the arbitrators’ decisions
are deemed to exist in the legal sphere, without it being possible for a third
party simply to ignore this. Case law goes further, however, and has given to
the notion of “opposabilité” much more radical consequences, often giving rise
to justifiable criticism. The extensive use of the concept of “opposabilité”
makes it all the more urgent to allow third parties to contest
awards. This nevertheless gives rise to difficulties, in particular in an
international context where the provisions of the Civil Procedure Code preclude
third party opposition to awards. It does not however seem impossible to allow
third parties to benefit from a specific procedural mechanism to protect their
rights, without compromising to an excessive extent the stability of legal
situations and of the legal system itself.