Originally from The MENA Leading Arbitrators’ Guide to International Arbitration

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I. INTRODUCTION 

An award made by a tribunal under an arbitration agreement is, unless otherwise agreed, final and binding on the parties. However, if the award is not complied with voluntarily, it must be enforced through national courts.

Recognition enables an award to be relied on by way of defence or set-off in any legal proceedings whereas enforcement enables the terms of an award to be enforced in the same manner as a domestic judgment. Once an award has been declared enforceable, the various enforcement procedures available to a judgment creditor under the relevant national procedural rules become available.

An award may also be set aside or annulled by the courts of the seat of the arbitration. Depending on the provisions of domestic legislation of the courts of the seat, the grounds for setting aside an award may differ from the grounds for refusing to recognise or enforce an award. There may also be a further distinction between the grounds for refusing to recognise or enforce a domestic award or a foreign award. 

The recognition, enforcement and nullification of awards in the MENA countries is mainly governed by domestic legislation and the provisions of prevailing regional or international enforcement conventions. Amongst the most prominent conventions applicable in the MENA are:

˗ the Riyadh Arab Agreement for Judicial Co-operation 1983 (the “Riyadh Convention”);

˗ the GCC Convention for the Execution of Judgments, Delegations and Judicial Notifications 1996 (the “GCC Convention”); and 

˗ the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards 1958 (NYC).