2023 stands out as a pivotal year marked by substantial advancements in arbitration across the African continent. Despite global challenges such as the lingering impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and projections of a slow recovery in Foreign Direct Investment (“FDI”) in the continent, African practitioners have demonstrated unwavering resilience and commitment to propelling the field…

The Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (“CRCICA”) issued its latest set of Arbitration Rules 2024 (“2024 Rules”), which enter into force from 15 January 2024. The 2024 Rules are presently available in English and Arabic, with a French version expected to be made available soon. Last updated in 2011, the CRCICA 2011 Rules…

On 6 January 2021, the Egyptian Government introduced a draft law for parliament’s approval, seeking to expand the Egyptian Supreme Constitutional Court’s (“ESCC”) jurisdiction to scrutinize international arbitration awards rendered against the Egyptian State and acts of international organizations affecting the Egyptian State. The legislative amendment is in line with previous legislative measures designed to…

The grounding of the container carrier “EVER GIVEN” in the Suez Canal in March 2021 has been dubbed by some as “shipping’s 15 minutes of fame”. This post hitches its star to that wagon and considers the contracts, claims and dispute resolution clauses likely to be affected by this casualty.   The Casualty, Salvage and…

Egypt has been trying to control the number of investor-state arbitration disputes which has been steeply increasing since 2011 and the Arab Spring movement (see past discussion on the Blog here). To that end, Egypt created alternative out-of-court forums for amicable settlement of existing arbitration cases and worked toward curbing the eruption of new cases…

On 27 October 2020, the Egyptian Court of Cassation (“Court”) rendered a ground-breaking judgment that is demonstrative of the Court’s appreciation of ongoing global developments in the field of arbitration (a courtesy translation prepared by the author of this post is available here). The case pertains to a domestic construction dispute under a subcontract that…

Egypt recently set out a legal framework for the protection and regulation of personal data. The legislation was brought about to regulate the protection of personal data which is stored and processed electronically. However, the law is silent on its application to arbitration and arbitral proceedings. The intersection between arbitration and data protection is not…

In a ‘ground-breaking’ precedential decision, Al-Kharafi v Libya (Judgment No. 39 of 130 JY, 3 June 2020), the Cairo Court of Appeal in Egypt ruled that it can review an arbitral award for fundamental errors of law that amount to a violation of public policy or equity and justice notions. The decision relates to an…

The motive for writing this blog post was conceived during my work as a member of the Technical Secretariat for the Ministerial Committee for Settlement of Investment Contracts Disputes, when I realized the need of both academics and practitioners for access to a reliable database of empirical analyses to support their work. This post is…

Here at Kluwer Arbitration Blog, we are pleased to reflect on a number of significant and exciting developments in international arbitration, with impact on the North African region. In this post, we recap these developments and their implications; and, of course, also thank our esteemed authors who have enabled us to bring coverage of events…

Introduction There have been three main long-standing controversies concerning arbitration in Egypt. First, interest rates and whether they are truly part of Egyptian substantive public policy.1)Ismail Selim, ‘Egyptian Public Policy as a Ground for Annulment and Refusal of Enforcement of Arbitral Awards’ (2016) 3 BCDR International Arbitration Review, Issue 1, pp. 65–79. Second, whether the…

Introduction An ongoing discussion in the world of international arbitration concerns the conflict of interest of arbitrators and how such issue should be addressed. In this regard, the Egyptian Court of Cassation has very recently enriched this discussion by evincing its perspective on this matter, particularly, with respect to the standard of impartiality and independence…

Introduction Although the nature of arbitration is still a matter of debate in the Egyptian legal system, the arbitration-friendly jurisprudence of Egyptian courts now supports the idea that the arbitration process is indeed of a judicial nature. A clear example is provided by the Supreme Constitutional Court (“SCC”),1)Supreme Constitutional Court, Challenge No. 95 of 20…

Dr Ismail Selim, thank you for joining us on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog! We are grateful to have the opportunity to share your unique perspective with our readers.   1. Could you give our readers a brief introduction to yourself and your route to becoming Director at CRCICA? I graduated from Cairo University in 1997…

In May 2018, the Cairo Court of Appeals issued an intriguing judgment concerning the enforcement of an arbitral interim measure. In the words of the Court, the arbitral tribunal has issued a procedural order against Damietta International Ports (“DIP”) ordering the latter to refrain from suing the guarantor bank regarding the liquidation of a letter…

On June 6, 2016, the ICSID Secretary General registered a request for arbitration in Global Telecom Holding (GTH) v. Canada. Although the text of the arbitral claim is not yet public, it appears likely that the dispute relates to GTH’s involvement (or attempted involvement) in Canada’s wireless telecommunications sector. This claim may be historic for…