Originally from The MENA Leading Arbitrators’ Guide to International Arbitration

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I. INTRODUCTION

Investment arbitration in the MENA has evolved into an important field of arbitral practice over the past two decades. This, no doubt, is an immediate result of the modernisation of the municipal and regional investment regimes across the MENA region, including the adoption and adaptation of national investment laws and instruments. Further, apart from the regional dimension of existing investment regimes, most MENA countries have also joined the international framework for investment protection. Despite some notable exceptions that will be further discussed below, in doing so, arbitration has inevitably become the primary means of dispute resolution of investor-State disputes arising from investments under municipal, regional or international investment instruments.

Against this background, this chapter seeks to introduce the reader to the procedural framework of investment arbitration in the MENA region (II), the process and procedure of investment arbitration under the relevant municipal, regional and international instruments more specifically (III) and the key standards of substantive protection made available under those instruments (IV), followed by a brief conclusion (V). This chapter does not aim to be exhaustive. Instead, it aims to provide an introduction to the subject for those familiar with the practice and procedure of investment arbitration from elsewhere in the world. For investor-State arbitrations in the oil and gas sector more specifically, the interested reader is referred to Chapter 24.

II. PROCEDURAL FRAMEWORK

The procedural framework for investment arbitration in the MENA is informed by a number of (i) domestic legislative initiatives in the form of national investment laws, (ii) bi-lateral investment treaties (BITs), (iii) free trade agreements (FTAs) and (iv) multi-lateral investment instruments, of both regional and international reach.