Enforcement of Foreign Awards in the UAE: A U-Turn Ahead?

Analysis

It is commonplace in international arbitration theory that an arbitral award is not worth the paper it is written on unless it is easily enforceable. Unfortunately, enforceability is not always a given in international arbitration practice. Enforcement of foreign awards in the UAE may serve as an instructive example

The old approach

Prior to the accession of the United Arab Emirates (‘UAE’) to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Awards (‘New York Convention’) in 2006 (see [1] below), the enforcement of foreign awards before the UAE Courts was - save the application of relevant bi- or other multi-lateral conventions [see [2] below] - subject to the application of Article 235 of Federal Law No. 11/1992 (the UAE Civil Procedures Code), which governs the enforcement of foreign judgments in the UAE [see [3] below]. Pursuant to Article 235, UAE Courts were empowered to and did in fact refuse enforcement of foreign awards on grounds such as:

the lack of proper jurisdiction of the tribunal at the place of arbitration;
the deficient issuance of the arbitral award at the place of arbitration;