Dispute Resolution in Abu Dhabi (Part IV): Is Conciliation Before Arbitration the Answer?
It was a deliberate decision of the Abu Dhabi Commercial Conciliation and Arbitration Centre (ADCCAC) to include both the term and procedures for “conciliation” in their rules.
Representatives of ADCCAC regularly comment to the effect that they see it as one function of a dispute resolution body to offer to the disputants a pre – arbitration solution, via a speeder and less formal set of procedures. Consistently with that theme, ADCCA has in it’s rules a detailed set of provisions that relate to the concilation of a dispute – before arbitration. Below, in summary, are some features of ADCCAC’s approach, certain of which are quite distinctive.
First, like all ADR provisions, th [...]
Dispute Resolution in Abu Dhabi (Part 3) – A Lot Now Rides on Success of the DAB System
The most commonly used form of construction contract in the Gulf is the FIDIC form. Although the FIDIC forms, for project procurement and consultantcy services, progressed slowly over the years, culminating in the burst of colours in the suite of contracts issued in 1999, some parts of the Middle East still use the 1987 (Red Book) version. Indeed, most government contracts in Oman are based on the 1981 version of the Red Book, updated marginally in clause 67.
In Abu Dhabi, some years ago, a decision was made by the government here to prepare, under license from FIDIC, two bespoked forms of the contract – build only, and design and build. Those forms were issued in 2007 accompanied by t [...]
Dispute Resolution in Abu Dhabi (Part 2) – Do We Have The Time, Or Luxury, To Rely Only On Arbitration As The Only “Alternative” in ADR?
Constructively, commercial arbitration is a judicially recognized and an enforced method of dispute resolution in the UAE.
Via Article 203 (5) of the Civil Procedure Law (1992), if the parties have agreed to refer a dispute to arbitration, an action on that dispute cannot be brought before the courts.
So let us assume for present purposes that the project in question, or the relevant commercial transaction, does have an arbitration agreement in it, which is recognized by the courts and enforced.
In many ways arbitrating major disputes in the UAE can be a far more complex process than in, say, the USA or UK or Europe.
First, what needs to be understood is that the list of criticism and “a [...]
Dispute Resolution in Abu Dhabi ( Part 1): How can the System Possibly Cope?
On a first reading this might seem like a particularly narrow question. Perhaps geographically of limited utility.
But to almost every international organization in the industrial, defence and major projects sectors it is, in fact, one of the burning issues confronting their participation in a market planning to spend or invest $USD450billion in 2010.
In the current financial climate, the Middle East is the most real, immediate and accessible market for project and investment businesses, otherwise stymied in the economies of the USA and Europe.
The overall framework for this 4-part series will be first to briefly outline the current legal system that supports the region. To then to focus o [...]
