Asharqia Chamber has organized a meeting under the title "The Role of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration in the Localization of the Institutional Arbitration Industry in the Kingdom and its Impact on the Law and Business Sector" on Wednesday, July 25, 2018.
The meeting was attended by a number of businessmen, especially concerned lawyers and legal advisers.
The Executive Chairman of the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration, Dr. Hamed bin Hassan Mirra, stressed the importance of localization of the institutional arbitration industry in the Kingdom, which is a priority for the country to be achieved, because of the features that make it an ideal choice for solving commercial disputes. He revealed the inclusion of the model arbitration clause under the management of the Center in some of the guiding contracts of the Ministry of Commerce and Investment.
He has cited a number of comparisons between resorting to the courts or resorting to arbitration in the settlement of commercial disputes as he said that arbitration guaranteed confidentiality and privacy as well.
Arbitration sessions are held between the parties and the arbitral tribunal, while in the judiciary, the principle is public.
The arbitration is carried out in a quick and flexible manner, as it is based on the agreement of the parties to the dispute.
In addition, arbitration provides several options for all parties, such as the choice of the applicable law, the place and language of arbitration. The arbitral awards are final, binding and not subject to appeal.
The arbitration provisions are enforceable in all signatories to the 1958 New York Convention, which are more than 160 countries around the world.
He referred to the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration; as the center was established by the Council of Ministers in 2014 to be under the umbrella of the Council of Saudi Chambers of Commerce and Industry, based in Riyadh.
He added, "And it supervises the arbitration proceedings in the relevant commercial and civil disputes that agreed upon by the parties to settle arbitrarily within the framework of the Center, as required by applicable regulations and commercial and civil legal principles."
Mira said that the Center -for the purpose of development of its arbitration tools- had a partnership with the International Center for the Settlement of Disputes in the American Arbitration Association.
This resulted in the participation in the preparation of arbitration and mediation rules for the Center, and the preparation of standards of ethical conduct for arbitrators, mediators, parties and employees, among others.
In order to ensure positive performance, the Center's list includes more than 176 arbitrators, including 73 Saudis, 103 foreigners (23 nationalities, some of whom have dual nationality). They represent 15 economic fields as follows: oil and gas, energy, Islamic banking, construction, intellectual property, communications and information technology, real estate investments, securities, mergers and acquisitions, insurance and others.
He stressed the readiness of the Center to launch a package of quality products in the field of arbitration within the next three months, including the opening of other branches of the Center in Jeddah and the Eastern region.
He said that the Center received-in 18 months-a number of issues that their parties, aside of the national parties, were received from Germany, America, Britain and France, (44%, banking, 44% construction, 11% Financial).
The average age of these cases was 25 weeks, parallel to the global average of 6-12 months.
He stressed the need to resolve trade disputes in a positive way to ensure continuity of business in the present and future, and to enforce contracts in a way that ensures the interests of all parties, the importance of taking care of the formulation of conditions for the settlement of disputes to ensure the establishment of a mechanism to resolve the dispute and the continuation of the relationship between the parties, and not to affect the implementation of the rest of the contract and to reach an end to the dispute between the parties to ensure the speed of settlement of the dispute efficiently and effectively.
He recommended the inclusion of the model requirement for the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration, which is available on the website of the Center.
The Chairman of the Committee of Lawyers and Legal Advisers in Asharqia Chamber, Khalid Abdul Latif Al-Saleh, has explained that the new arbitration system came to meet the demands of the current stage in terms of the development of arbitration as a mechanism for the adjudication of commercial disputes.
Businessmen and investors can benefit from the provisions of the new system in making the jurisdiction of the separation of contracts and conventions in accordance with the Saudi arbitration system, which took into account to be developed and to be consistent with the provisions of regional and international arbitration systems and the investment environment and confidence, thus it is strengthening the achievement of the Vision of 2030.
He added that the arbitral verdicts issued in accordance with the provisions of the new system cannot be challenged by any of the methods of appeal, except to file a claim for the nullification of the verdict in accordance with the provisions and reasons built in the system, which are usually related to the validity and integrity of the arbitration verdict. If the arbitration verdict would have the authority of the order that ordered, it shall be enforceable, which is the speed in conducting the arbitral process and the possibility of executing the judgment without objecting to it in accordance with the mechanism that existed in the previous system and achieving the separation of commercial disputes in accordance with the provisions of the Arbitration Law without resorting to the courts, whether to adopt the arbitration document or take the executive form of the judgment, and that the claim of invalidity of the arbitral verdict would be submitted to the Court of Appeal.
Under the new system, arbitration provisions apply to all arbitrations that take place in the Kingdom or if they are international commercial arbitration and are conducted abroad where both parties agreed to subject it to the provisions of the system, which is considering the Saudi arbitration system to be the law applicable to the dispute.
At the end of the meeting, the guest was honored with a shield.
