This Practice Note provides guidance on how to enforce and challenge arbitration awards rendered under relevant investment legislation in place in the GCC Countries. In doing so, the Practice Note discusses the enforcement and challenge regimes that apply under the various investment instruments to which the GCC Countries are a party. Within this context, the note also addresses the contemporary importance of so-called freezone jurisdictions that are a more recent phenomenon unique to some of the GCC Countries.

The Practice Note focuses in particular on investment arbitration awards that are obtained under:

• the various GCC investment laws,

• multi-lateral investment instruments of regional scope, such as the Arab Investment Agreement and the OIC Agreement,

• relevant free trade arrangements between the GCC Countries and the developed world, and

• bi-lateral investment treaties of regional reach. The Practice Note also addresses the enforcement and challenge regimes specific to awards rendered under the ICSID Convention.

Finally, the note explains how some awards follow the enforcement process of ordinary international commercial awards and as such benefit from enforcement under international and regional enforcement instruments, such as the New York Convention as well as the Riyadh and GCC Conventions.