Concerning the law of civil procedures

Book two - various procedures and litigations

TITLE THREE: ARBITRATION

As amended by Federal Law No. 30/2005 dated 30/11/2005:

Article 203

  1. It shall be possible that the contractors, in general, state as a condition in the principal contract or with a subsequent agreement, the exposition of what may arise among them of litigations concerning the execution of a certain contract, to one or more arbitrators, and it is also possible to agree on the arbitration in a certain litigation under special conditions.
  2. The agreement shall not be recorded except in writing.
  3. The litigation’s facts should be designated in the arbitration document or during the examination of the action even if the arbitrators were authorized for reconciliation, otherwise the arbitration shall be void.
  4. It shall not be possible to arbitrate in the matters in which the reconciliation is not possible, and it shall not be valid to agree on the arbitration unless by those who have the capacity of disposition in the litigated right.
  5. If the litigant parties have agreed on the arbitration in some litigation, it shall not be possible to prosecute an action therewith before the judiciary, however, if one of the two litigant parties has resorted to prosecute the action without taking into consideration the arbitration condition and the other party hasn’t objected at the first sessions, the action should be examined and the arbitration condition shall be void.

Article 204

  1. If the litigation has occurred and the litigant parties haven’t agreed on the arbitrators, or one or more arbitrators, who was agreed on, has abstained from the work, has retired there from, has been dismissed there from, or his refusal has been decided, or a hindrance has prevented his undertaking therein, and there were not an agreement between the litigant parties concerning that, the court which is principally authorized to examine that litigation shall appoint whoever shall be needed of the arbitrators, and that on the grounds of a request from one of the litigant parties, through the usual procedures of the action prosecution. The number of those appointed by the court should be equal to the number agreed on between the litigant parties or completing thereto.
  2. It shall not be possible to appeal against the decision issued in that through any of the proceedings of appeal.

Article 205

It shall not be possible to authorize the arbitrators for the reconciliation unless they were mentioned by their names in the agreement on the arbitration or in a subsequent document.

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Article 206

The arbitrator should not be minor, legally incompetent, deprived from his civil rights because of a criminal penalty or bankrupt unless he has been rehabilitated.

  1. If there were many arbitrators there numbers, in all circumstances, should be odd.

Article 207

  1. The arbitrator’s acceptance should be in writing or by proving his acceptance in the session minutes.
  2. If the arbitrator has withdrawn, without serious reason, from his work after his acceptance of the arbitration, it shall be possible to inflict indemnities on him.
  3. He may not be dismissed except with the consent of all the litigant parties, however the court which was principally authorized to examine the action, and on the grounds of one the litigant parties request, may dismiss the arbitrator and give order to appoint a substitute in his place in the manner in which he was appointed in the beginning, and that in the case of proving that the arbitrator has intentionally neglected the work according to the agreement of the arbitrators in spite of drawing his attention, in writing, thereto.
  4. It shall not be possible to refuse him from the arbitration except for reasons which would occur or appear after his personal appointment, and the refusal shall be requested for the same reasons for which the judge is refused or because of which he shall not be competent to arbitrate. The refusal request shall be prosecuted to the court which is principally authorized to examine the action within five days from the litigant party’s notification with the arbitrator appointment or from the date of the occurrence of the refusal reason or the acknowledgement thereof if it were next to his notification with the arbitrator appointment. In all circumstances, the refusal request shall not be accepted if the court’s decision has been issued and the pleading in the case has been closed.

Article 208

  1. The arbitrator shall, within thirty days at most from the acceptance of the arbitration, notify the litigant parties with the date of the first session fixed to examine the litigation and with its meeting place and that without obligation to the rules settled in that law for the notification and he shall fix for them a date to submit their documents, briefs and defence aspects.
  2. It shall be possible to arbitrate according to what one side shall submit if the other party failed to do on the appointed date.
  3. If the arbitrators were many they should undertake, together, the investigation procedures and each of them should sign on the reports.

Article 209

  1. The litigation shall cease before the court if one of the reasons of the litigation severance, set in this law, has emerged, and the severance shall result in its effects which were legally set unless the action has been held for judgment.
  2. If a priority matter which is not related to the arbitrator’s authority, or an appeal against a paper falsification, or a criminal procedures have been taken in its falsification, or in another criminal incident has been exposed during the arbitration, the arbitrator shall stop his work until a final decision shall be issued therein, and the arbitrator shall also stop his work in order to refer to the authorized court’s president to proceed the following:
  3. The sentence with the penalty legally set on the witnesses who fail to attend or abstain from answering.
  4. The decision charging the others to show a documents in his possession which is necessary for the decision in the arbitration.
  5. The decision in the judicial writs.

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Article 210

  1. If the litigant parties haven’t set, as a condition in the agreement, a date for the arbitration the arbitrator should arbitrate within six month from the date of the session of the first arbitration, otherwise anyone who wanted of the litigant parties may prosecute the litigation to the court or may continue therein before the court if it was prosecuted before that.
  2. The litigant parties may agree, expressly or implicitly, to extend the appointed date, by agreement or by law, and they may authorizing the arbitrator to extend it to a certain date and the court may, according to the request of the arbitrator or one of the litigant parties, prolong the time-limits appointed in the preceding clause to the period which it shall find adequate for deciding in the litigation.
  3. The date shall be suspended as far as the litigation is suspended or severed before the arbitrator and its progression shall be resumed from the date of the arbitrator’s acknowledgment of the extinguishment of the suspension or the severance’s reason, and if the rest of the time-limit were a month it shall be extended to a month.

Article 211

The arbitrators should administer an oath on the witnesses and everyone who shall perjure before the arbitrators shall be considered a committer of the crime of perjury.

Article 212

  1. The arbitrator shall deliver his decision without obligation to the pleading procedures except what has been stipulated in this chapter and the procedures concerning the litigant parties’ action and hearing their defence’s aspects, and enabling them to submit their documents, however, the litigant parties may agree on certain procedures according to which the arbitrator should proceed.
  2. The arbitrator’s decision shall be according to the rules of the law unless if it were authorized with the reconciliation, then it shall not be obliged with such rules except with those related to the public order.
  3. The rules related to the summary execution shall be applied on the arbitrator’s decisions.
  4. The arbitrator’s judgment should be delivered in the state of the United Arab Emirates, otherwise the rules set for the arbitrators’ decisions delivered in a foreign country shall be followed therein.
  5. The arbitrators’ decision shall be delivered with a majority of opinions and it should be written together with the contradictory opinion, and it should particularly include a copy of the arbitration agreement and a resume of the litigant parties’ statements, their documents, the decision’s reason and its pronunciation, its delivery date, its delivery place, the arbitrators’ signatures, and if one or more of the arbitrators has refused to sign the decision that should be mentioned therein, and the decision shall be valid if the majority of the arbitrators have signed it.
  6. The decision shall be compiled in Arabic unless the litigant parties have agreed otherwise, in such case, an official translation should be attached thereto when it is deposited.
  7. The decision shall be considered delivered from the date of the arbitrators’ signature thereon after writing it.

Article 213

  1. In case of the arbitration proceeded through the court, the arbitrators should deposit the decision with the original of the arbitration record, the reports and the documents in the clerk’s office of the court authorized principally to examine the action, and that shall be within the fifteen days following the decision’s delivery and they should deposit a copy of the decision in the clerk’s office of the court to deliver them to each party side and that within fifteen days from depositing the original and the clerk’s office of the court shall compile a report with that deposit [Page175:] to manifest it to the judge or the division manager, according to the circumstances, in order to appoint a session within fifteen days to authenticate the decision and the two parties shall be notified therewith.
  2. If the arbitration were incoming in an appellate case the deposit shall be in the clerk’s office of the court authorized principally to examine the appeal.
  3. As for the arbitration which takes place between the litigant parties outside the court, the arbitrators should deliver a copy of the decision to each party within five days from the delivery of the arbitration decision and the court shall examine the authentication or the nullity of the decision according to the request of one of the litigant parties through the usual procedures of the action prosecution.

Article 214

The court may, during the examination of the authentication request of the arbitrators’ decision, return it to them in order to examine what they have failed to arbitrate in the arbitration matters therein or to clarify the decision if it were not definite in a way that makes it impossible to execute, and the arbitrators should, in both cases, deliver their decision within three months from the date of their notification with the decision unless the law shall decide otherwise.

It is not possible to appeal against its decision except with the final sentence delivered with the authentication of the sentence or its invalidation.

Article 215

  1. The arbitrators’ decision shall not be executed except if the court in which clerk’s office the decision was deposited, has authenticated it, and that after looking into the decision and the arbitration document and verifying that there is no prohibition to execute it, and such court shall be authorized to amend the material errors in the arbitrators’ decision according to the request of the concerned persons through the proceedings set for amending the arbitrations.
  2. The execution judge shall be authorized with all that concerns the execution of the arbitrators’ decision.

Article 216

  1. The litigant parties may request the nullity of the arbitrators’ decision when the court examines its authentication and that shall be in the following circumstances:
  2. If it has been delivered without an arbitration report or delivered according to a void document or a document that has been extinguished by the failure to observe the date or if the arbitrator has gone beyond the document’s limits.
  3. If the decision has been delivered by arbitrators who were not assigned according to the law or it has been delivered by some of them who were not allowed to give the decision in the absence of others, or delivered according to an arbitration document in which the litigation facts have not been determined, or delivered by a person who had not the capacity of the arbitration agreement, or by an arbitrator who did not fulfill the judicial conditions.
  4. If a nullity in the decision or a nullity in the procedures which has affected the decision has occurred.
  5. The acceptance of the nullity shall not be restrained by the litigant party’s relinquishment of his right therein before the delivery of the arbitrators’ decision.

Article 217

  1. The arbitrators’ decisions shall not accept the appeal therein through any of the appeal proceedings.
  2. As for the decision delivered for the authentication of the arbitrators’ decision or by its nullity, it shall be possible to appeal against it by the appropriate appeal proceedings.

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  1. With the exception of the preceding clause terms, the decision shall not be subject to the appeal if the arbitrators were authorized for reconciliation or the litigant parties have expressly relinquished the right to appeal, or the litigation value were not exceeding ten thousand Dirham.

Article 218

The arbitrators shall be allowed to valuate their fees and the arbitration expenditures, and they may inflict all or part of them on the losing party, and the court, on the basis of the request of one of the litigant parties, may amend that valuation with what shall be adequate to the effort done and the litigation nature.

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The publishers would like to thank LexisNexis and SADER Legal Publishing for their permission to use translated extracts from the UAE Civil Procedure Code.

More information about Lexis Middle East Laws can be found at www.lexismiddleeastlaw.ae.