A recent ruling of the Dubai Court of Cassation (the highest Court in the Emirate, against whose rulings there lies no further appeal) raises serious concerns as to whether the unruly horse of public policy that became infamous in the early nineteenth century in the common law world and in particular along the shorelines of the British Isles has now bridged the gulf between the common and civil law world, made its way across the Persian Gulf and – washed ashore in the Emirate of Dubai – has turned into a camel. By way of reminder, the unruly horse was borne to English law with the valiant assistance of Mr Justice Burrough in 1824, when he described the doctrine of public policy in the foll [...]

As explored in some detail in Part I of this blog post, recent UAE supervisory court case law has heralded a new era of enforcement of international awards in strict compliance with the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Awards (the “New York Convention”).

To recap, the Maxtel line of case law (see in particular Commercial Action No. 268/2010 – Maxtel International FZE v. Airmec Dubai LLC, ruling of the Dubai Court of First Instance, dated 12 January 2011, most recently affirmed by the Dubai Court of Appeal in Airmec Dubai LLC v. Maxtel International LLC, ruling dated 22nd February 2012), which originated a year earlier in the Fujairah Courts (see Case [...]

As in most other jurisdictions, the violation of public policy in the UAE constitutes a ground for refusing the recognition of an arbitral award. Public policy is defined in Article 3 of the UAE Civil Code [Federal Law No. (5) of 1985] as follows:

“Are considered of Public Policy, rules relating to personal status such as marriage, inheritance, descent, and rules concerning governance, freedom of commerce, trading in wealth, rules of personal property and provisions and foundations on which the society is based in a way that do not violate final decisions and major principles of Islamic Shari’a”.

A striking feature of this definition is that it is wide enough to encompass almost anything t [...]

Confidentiality is often a distinguishing reason why users choose arbitration over court litigation. In a 2010 International Arbitration Survey on Choices in International Arbitration, 62% of respondents said confidentiality was very important to them. Last month, a contributor to this blog observed anecdotally that in-house counsel want confidentiality especially in industries in which a dispute may arise in one part of the world between businesses while in another part of the world amiable and profitable projects are still ongoing.

The confidentiality of arbitration refers to the extent to which parties are prohibited from disclosing the existence, nature and content of the arbitration [...]

With its decision of 27 March 2012, the Swiss Federal Supreme Court held unlawful a disciplinary sanction by which FIFA threatened the football player Matuzalem with a lifetime ban in case he failed to pay a damage claim of his former club and employer.

By an earlier decision of the CAS, Francelino da Silva Matuzalem, together with the football club Real Saragossa SAD, were ordered to pay an amount of over EUR 11 million plus interest as damage after Matuzalem had left his former football club Shakhtar Donetsk to join Real Saragossa without a reason and without giving notice. As both Matuzalem and Real Saragossa did not pay the damage, FIFA set a final deadline for payment and, failing payme [...]

A commentary on the OECD Competition Commission conclusions on using arbitration to effectively resolve competition law disputes
By Francesca Richmond and Sarah West

There has been increasing use of arbitration to resolve disputes involving competition law issues in recent years. However, it is surprising that the number is not even greater given that arbitral processes are particularly suited to this type of complex, multi-jurisdictional dispute. Claimants can be nervous that the validity of such awards might be challenged on public policy grounds, however, in practice there are only limited circumstances in which a civil claim based upon competition law is likely to also engage public p [...]