The final stage of the legislative process for the new UAE Arbitration law (Federal Law No. 6/2018 on Arbitration in Commercial Disputes) took place with the publication of the new law in Official Gazette issue No. 630 dated 15 May 2018. The new law comes into effect on 16 June 2018, one month from the day following its official publication.

The new Arbitration law is a welcome advance for arbitration in the UAE. It expressly repeals the former law governing arbitration in the UAE since 1992, contained in a short chapter of the Federal Civil Procedure Code (Federal Law No. 11/1992), replacing it with a modern law based on the internationally recognised and accepted UNCITRAL Model Law.

Article 59 of the new UAE Arbitration law provides for its immediate application to all existing arbitrations, notwithstanding that they were commenced prior to the law coming into effect. Importantly, the introduction of the new law will not invalidate any aspect of the proceedings that took place before it came into effect. Parties currently in arbitration will need to ensure that they are fully aware of all of the changes introduced by the new law. However, it is unclear how those who are contemplating challenging an award made against them prior to the law coming into effect will be impacted by the new law, and in particular the new 30 day time limit which will apply for raising a challenge to an award.

While significant positive change will be brought about by the introduction of this new law, some of the old uncertainties remain unaddressed and a few new ones will emerge. On balance, however, the impact of the new law is expected to be overwhelmingly positive for the legal community and the wider business community, both within the UAE and abroad.

To mark the announcement of the commencement of the new UAE Arbitration law, Bill Smith and Maria Mazzawi from Pinsent Masons prepared a comprehensive analysis of the new law, which explains which issues troubling arbitration in the past have been addressed by the new law, and which have not. We have also examined whether there might be any new uncertainties introduced by the new law.

The enactment of the new Arbitration law has been designed to attract further foreign direct investment into the UAE, and to firmly reinforce the UAE’s place as the most progressive market for doing business in the Middle East region. Its introduction provides an international framework, which is already familiar to the global business community, for the fair and efficient resolution of their commercial disputes.

Read full article here: www.pinsentmasons.com/Global/UAE_Arbitration_law_update.pdf