IsraelLawHow can a clerical error in an Israeli arbitral award be corrected?
An arbitral award is final once issued, and the general rule under Israeli law — as in most jurisdictions — is that an arbitrator becomes *functus officio* after rendering an award and has no power to revisit it. Section 23 of the Arbitration Law 5728-1968 is the exception: it preserves a limited residual jurisdiction to fix errors that do not touch the merits. Examples include a wrong date in the operative clause, a mis-stated party name, an arithmetic error in the damages calculation, or a figure that obviously transposes two digits. The correction mechanism exists because sending parties to a full court challenge under Section 24 of the Arbitration Law over a single transposed number would waste judicial resources and delay enforcement. A correction application under Section 23 must describe the error with precision and explain why it is a clerical mistake rather than a substantive disagreement. An arbitrator who tries to reopen a merits question through the correction route will have the correction set aside by the court.
For international arbitrations, Article 34 of the International Commercial Arbitration Law 5784-2024 mirrors Article 33 of the UNCITRAL Model Law and allows parties to request both corrections and interpretations of the award within 30 days of receipt, unless the parties have agreed a different period. Institutional rules — ICC, ICCA, LCIA — typically include their own correction timelines, which the parties should consult first. An uncorrected clerical error does not invalidate an award for enforcement purposes under the New York Convention: Israeli courts and foreign courts will generally overlook a typographical slip that does not affect the substance of the obligation being enforced. However, if the error relates to the amount payable or the identity of a party, correcting it before enforcement proceedings begin avoids practical complications at the Execution Office.
- Governing law: Section 23, Arbitration Law 5728-1968 (domestic); Article 34, International Commercial Arbitration Law 5784-2024 (international)
- Competent authority: the original arbitral tribunal; no court application needed for a correction — the tribunal acts directly
- Party deadline: 30 days from receipt of award under Article 34 ICA Law; Section 23 does not specify a strict deadline for domestic awards, but prompt application is advisable
- Scope: clerical, computational, typographical, or similar manifest errors only; substantive reconsideration is not permitted
- Effect: the correction becomes an integral part of the original award and is submitted for enforcement together with the corrected version
From the full guide: The Arbitration Process in Israel: Step by Step
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