Originally from Between East and West: Essays in Honour of Ulf Franke

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Why have all Arab Countries1 including Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Bahrain, UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Tunis, Algeria, Egypt, the Sultanate of Oman, Jordan, Syria, and Morocco2 amended their arbitration laws since 1983?

Why did most of the Arab countries join both ICSID and the New York Convention?3

Why are arbitration centers increasingly being established in Arab countries?

All the above indicate that the Arab world is now extremely involved in arbitration as it is seen as the law and jurisdiction of the future. The Arab world has taken big steps forward in this field.

Regarding legal developments, three modern trends have been taken by Arab Laws:

i. The New York Convention trend that breaks the link between the law of the seat of arbitration and “party autonomy.”

ii. The French law trend that releases the arbitral award from any incident occurring thereto in the country of issuance.

iii. The UNCITRAL Model Law trend that guarantees that “party autonomy” prevails over any other law.

The Arab arbitration laws were inspired by the above trends.

In this regard, one may observe the following: Except for Lebanese law, all Arab arbitration laws and constitutions are based on Islamic Law (Shari’a), being the law of the country or the origin of its legislation.

This paper will deal with the following:

i. Arbitration in Islamic Law (Shari’a).

ii. A brief glance at each of the Arab arbitration laws.

iii. Arab arbitration conventions.