Two grounds police the boundaries of the tribunal’s mandate: did it decide more than it was asked, and was it constituted and run as the parties agreed? The ADGM Courts apply both with a firm eye on materiality.
Beyond the scope of the submission — Article V(1)(c)
A tribunal's authority is defined by the parties' agreement and the matters submitted to it. Article V(1)(c) permits refusal where the award deals with a difference not contemplated by, or falling outside, the submission to arbitration — the arbitral equivalent of deciding a case that was never pleaded. Crucially, the Convention allows severance: where the excess can be separated from the parts properly decided, the court may enforce the good and refuse only the surplus. An ultra petita complaint is therefore rarely a route to defeating an award wholesale.
Deciding more than was asked may cost the tribunal the surplus — rarely the whole award.
Irregular tribunal or procedure — Article V(1)(d)
Article V(1)(d) addresses whether the tribunal's composition or the arbitral procedure accorded with the parties' agreement or, failing agreement, the law of the seat. The parties' chosen rules and their agreed procedure are given primacy; only where they are silent does the seat's law fill the gap.
Materiality is the filter
Neither ground is a licence to re-open the arbitration. The ADGM Courts, consistent with the Convention's narrow construction of Article V, will ask whether any departure was serious and whether it could have affected the outcome. A trivial or immaterial deviation from an agreed procedure — one that made no difference to the result — will not carry the day.
What this means for parties
For the creditor, the lesson is precision: keep the award within the four corners of the submission and follow the agreed procedure to the letter. For the respondent, the lesson is candour about materiality: a procedural grievance untethered to any real consequence will not move a Convention court.
Key instruments: New York Convention 1958 (Article V(1)(c)–(d)); UNCITRAL Model Law; ADGM Arbitration Regulations 2015. General information, not legal advice.