Commentary on provisions of Act Powers of the court in relation to award Section 10: Challenging the award: remedies available to the court
An arbitral tribunal can issue an award on whether it has jurisdiction, and it can issue an award on the merits of the dispute. Either type of award can be challenged under section 67 of the 1996 Act on the basis that the arbitral tribunal did not have jurisdiction.
	Awards can also be challenged for serious irregularity (by section 68 of the 1996 Act), where the remedies are: remit the award to the tribunal for reconsideration, set aside the award, or declare the award to be of no effect. And awards can be appealed on a point of law (by section 69 of the 1996 Act), where the remedies are: confirm, vary, remit for reconsideration, or set aside the award. In both sections there is a proviso that an award will not be set aside unless it is inappropriate to remit the award to the tribunal.
	Section 10 of this Act amends section 67 of the 1996 Act to provide the remedies of remittance for reconsideration and declaring the award to be of no effect. This renders section 67 of the 1996 Act consistent with the scheme of remedies in sections 68 and 69 of the 1996 Act, and consistent with the assumptions in the case law that these remedies were intended to be available.