Dubai

Dubai, Enforcement, United Arab Emirates

, (Charles Russell Speechlys LLP)/ /Leave a comment

On 21 April 2022, the Dubai Court of Cassation (the “Cassation Court”) issued a judgment in respect of an application for the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitration award in case no. 109 of 2022 (the “Judgment”, available in Arabic-only on the Court’s website). In the Judgment, the Cassation Court considered whether an arbitration award…

DIAC, Dubai, LIDW2022, Middle East, UAE

(Queen Mary University of London)/ /Leave a comment

As part of the 2022 London International Disputes Week, Arbitration Chambers, Clyde & Co, Hausfeld, Jones Day and LexisNexis organized a conference on “London as an international disputes hub for Dubai, UAE and region disputes: arbitration and the courts – is it still safe to arbitrate in Dubai, and other hot topics”. The panel was…

DIAC, Dubai, Institutional Arbitration, UAE

(Watson Farley & Williams (Middle East) LLP)/ /Leave a comment

As previously reported on the Blog (here and here), in September 2021, Dubai Decree No. 34 of 2021 (Decree), and a new statute (Statute) regulating the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (DIAC or Centre), made significant changes to the institutional arbitration landscape in the UAE, by consolidating all local arbitration centres into a single arbitration centre,…

2021 in Review, Abu Dhabi, DIAC, DIFC, Dubai, KSA, Middle East, Qatar, UAE, UAE Federal Arbitration Law

, (Al Tamimi & Company)/ /Leave a comment

Amidst reeling from the pandemic of 2020, 2021 witnessed a number of arbitration-related transformations, developments and notable decisions issued by the national courts in the Middle East. In this post, we focus in on the Middle East region to reflect on the significant developments that took place in arbitral centres, summarize key judgments issued by…

Arbitration, DIAC, DIFC, Dubai, MENA

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

The recent adoption of Decree No. 34/2021 (see Dubai Government Decree No. 34 of 2021, which entered into force with effect from 20 September 2021) provides for the consolidation of local arbitration centers into a single institution, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre 2.0 (DIAC 2.0). Some perspectives on Decree No. 34/2021 have already been shared…

Arbitration Agreements, Dubai, Jurisdiction, UAE, UAE Federal Arbitration Law

(Al Owais Advocates & Legal Consultants)/ /Leave a comment

The United Arab Emirates (“UAE”) has taken strides in increasingly accepting arbitration as the parties’ chosen dispute resolution mechanism. It is now well established that UAE courts would respect the parties’ agreement on arbitration and uphold valid arbitration clauses. In fact, Article 8(1) of the Federal Law on Arbitration, No. 6 (2018) (“UAE Arbitration Law”)…

DIAC, DIFC, Dubai

(Baker McKenzie Habib Al Mulla) and (Sorbonne University Abu Dhabi)/ /1 Comment

Dubai’s Decree 34 of 2021 (“Decree”) and its appended statute on DIAC (“Statute”) were promulgated on 14 September 2021. The Decree consolidates the local arbitration centres under a new-and-improved DIAC (“DIAC 2.0”), and notably abolishes the DIFC Arbitration Institute (“DIFC-LCIA”), marking the beginning of a new era for arbitration in Dubai. From the outset, DIAC…

DIAC, DIFC, DIFC conduit jurisdiction, Dubai, MENA, Qatar, Qatar Financial Centre

(Armstrong Teasdale)/ /Leave a comment

On 14 September 2021, a Decree (no. 34) by the government of Dubai (currently only available in Arabic)  (the Decree) abolished two of Dubai’s most successful arbitration institutions: the Dubai Maritime Arbitration Centre (EMAC) and the DIFC-LCIA Centre.1)The DIFC-LCIA was established as a joint venture between Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC), Dubai Arbitration Institute (DAI),…

Arbitration Agreements, Construction arbitration, Dubai, MENA

, (MRP Advisory)/ /Leave a comment

The Dubai Court of Cassation, in its recent judgement, DCC 1308 of 2020, explored the effect of incorporation of arbitration clauses by reference. Typically, “incorporation by reference” refers to parties agreeing to incorporate arbitral clauses found in separate standard-form agreements (“SFAs”) into the agreement between the parties by making reference to the same. Such reference…

Arbitration Agreement, Arbitration Agreements, Dubai, UAE

, (Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr LLP)/ /1 Comment

The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation in Case No. 922 of 2020 recently considered the requirements that must be satisfied to conclude an arbitration agreement by powers of attorney. The judgment is the latest in a line of authorities confirming that special requirements apply to the formation of arbitration agreements (a courtesy translation of the…

Agreement in writing, Arbitration, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

(Al Owais Advocates & Legal Consultants)/ /Leave a comment

The authority required to agree to arbitration on behalf of a juristic person has been a heavily debated issue in the United Arab Emirates (“UAE”). This blog post examines relevant legislation and case law with respect to limited liability companies and public joint stock companies in an attempt to reach a conclusion on what type…

Abu Dhabi, ADGM, DIFC, Dubai, Free Trade Zones, MENA, Middle East, UAE

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

As some readers of this blog will, no doubt, be aware, free zone arbitration is a comparatively recent phenomenon that has been championed in particular by the UAE in order to create an alternative to arbitrations seated onshore. By way of reminder, in the UAE, free zone arbitrations are seated in one of the judicial…

Abu Dhabi, ADGM, DIFC, Dubai, Free Trade Zones, MENA, Middle East, UAE

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

This is Part 2 of a blog published in two parts. Part 1 dealt with the Abu Dhabi Global Market Court of First Instance (“ADGMCFI”)’s rulings in A3 v. B3 [2019] ADGMCFI 0004 (4 July 2019), enforcing an ADGM arbitration agreement, and in A4 v. B4 [2019] ADGMCFI 0007 (8 October 2019), enforcing a foreign…

2019 In Review, Abu Dhabi, DIFC, DIFC conduit jurisdiction, Dubai, UAE

and (The George Washington University Law School)/ /Leave a comment

With 2019 concluded and a new decade on the horizon, it is worth reflecting on salient arbitration-related developments in the United Arab Emirates. As a jurisdiction, the UAE is not only a geographically-strategic venue for arbitration, but also a legally strategic one. As Dr. Gordon Blanke explained in his recent post, the UAE offers opportunities…

Abu Dhabi, ADR, Arbitration institution, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

This year, I had the extraordinary pleasure of speaking at the Emirate Maritime Arbitration Centre (the “EMAC”) inaugural event of Dubai Arbitration Week 2019 (for the full presentation, see here). The EMAC, as readers may know, is the only arbitration institution specialized in the administration of maritime disputes through arbitration in the UAE and the…

DIFC, DIFC conduit jurisdiction, Dubai, Middle East, United Arab Emirates

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

At the dawn of the New Year, it is time to provide an update on the Dubai International Financial Court (DIFC)’s role as a conduit. Since the DIFC’s first entry onto the jurisdictional landscape as a conduit for the recognition and enforcement of awards for onward execution against assets of award debtors in onshore Dubai,…

2018 In Review, Abu Dhabi, Arab World, Dubai, Middle East, Saudi Arabia, UAE, UAE Federal Arbitration Law, United Arab Emirates

, (University of Aberdeen ), and (Dentons & Co, Dubai)/ /Leave a comment

The year of 2018 brought a wave of important arbitration events, developments, precedents and legislative reforms in the Middle East.  Join the Kluwer Arbitration Blog’s (KAB) regional editorial team (Dalal Al Houti, Zahra Rose Khawaja, and Gloria Alvarez) as we reflect on a few of these developments and thank the authors who enabled us to provide…

Appointment of arbitrators, Arbitrator Challenges, Counsel, Counsel conduct, Disclosure, Dubai, ICC, International arbitration, International Arbitration Procedures, MENA, Middle East, UAE, UAE Federal Arbitration Law, UNCITRAL Model Law, United Arab Emirates

(Dentons & Co, Dubai)/ /Leave a comment

Participants at this year’s Dubai Arbitration Week gathered for the ICC conference hosted by Al Tamimi & Co on 14 November 2018. The conference featured a lively roundtable discussion on the subject of “Arbitrator Disclosure – Local Flavour or International Standards?” chaired by Nadia Darwazeh. The panel comprised practitioners from across the MENA region and…

Africa, Arbitration, Arbitration Agreement, Arbitration clause, Arbitration institution, Dubai, UAE, UAE Federal Arbitration Law, UNCITRAL Model Law, United Arab Emirates

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Since the inaugural programme in 2014, arbitration practitioners from the MENA region and beyond have come together to share and discuss recent developments in the field of international arbitration during the Dubai Arbitration Week, an annual event that takes place in November. Dubai Arbitration Week 2018 was no exception. It was full of seminars, conferences,…

Advocacy, Dubai, UAE

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

At the dawn of the New Year, foreign arbitration specialists will welcome some reassurance to the effect that the amendments made to the UAE Advocacy Law, also known as Federal Law No. (23) of 1991 on the Regulation of the Legal Profession, in November 2017 (see Ministerial Resolution No. (972) of 2017 on the Executive…

DIFC, DIFC conduit jurisdiction, Dubai

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

A recent decision of the Dubai-DIFC Judicial Tribunal (the “JT”) (see Cassation No. 6/2017 (JT) – Assas Investments Limited v. Fius Capital Limited) – even though not quite a saving grace – appears to throw a lifeline to the DIFC Courts in their role as a conduit jurisdiction. Regular readers of this Blog will recall…

Arbitration, DIFC, Dubai

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

This is the final one in sequel of four parts on the status of the DIFC Courts as a conduit jurisdiction. It reports on a further number of recent decisions of the Dubai-DIFC Judicial Committee – also known as the Judicial Tribunal or in shorthand the JT – that question the DIFC Courts’ role as…

Dubai, Enforcement, English Arbitration Act, State Immunity

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /1 Comment

A recent ruling of the DIFC Court of First Instance (see Claim No. ARB 003/2017 – Pearl Petroleum Company Limited & Others v. The Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq [2017] DIFC ARB 003) deals with the question as to whether a State immunity defence may be available to a State entity or a governmental defendant…

DIFC, Dubai

(Blanke Arbitration LLC)/ /Leave a comment

In a recent ruling (see Commercial Case No. 1619/2016, ruling of the Dubai Court of First Instance of 15 February 2017), the Dubai Court of First Instance annulled the DIFC Courts’ rulings in the Banyan Tree line of cases (see Case No. ARB/003/2013, rulings of the DIFC Court of First Instance of 2nd April 2015…