Set against a background of problematic enforcements in the UAE, a strong pro-enforcement judgment from the Court of Cassation is precisely what arbitration practitioners and users have been waiting for.

The Dubai Court of First Instance has also recently ruled in a case applying the NYC to foreign award enforcement in circumstances where neither party advanced arguments based upon it, and the pleadings focused on the provisions of the CPC. It may be that the well-publicised ruling in the Cassation case influenced the Court in making this further pro-arbitration ruling.