Originally from The MENA Leading Arbitrators’ Guide to International Arbitration

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I. INTRODUCTION

It is often said that arbitration does not exist in a vacuum.  Arbitration, in its inherent nature as a dispute resolution mechanism, can only effectively function through a well-established legal system and its corresponding judiciary. One of the most common examples of the interaction between arbitration and litigation is through parallel proceedings before national courts.  

Parallel proceedings are independent proceedings which are initiated by one of the parties to arbitration, or sometimes even a third-party, before a local judicial authority after arbitration proceedings have commenced  and up until the issuance of the final award. The subject matter of the parallel proceedings relates mainly to the procedural issues arising out of the existing arbitration proceedings. However, these proceedings, by nature, retrieve part of the dispute back to the system of national courts although the initial will of the parties was to resolve the dispute through arbitration, outside the conventional national courts system.