Reforming Arbitration In The Kingdom: Saudi Arabia's Push Toward Global Standards

The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is poised to transform its arbitration landscape with the recently draft Arbitration Law ("Draft Law"), published by the National Competitiveness Center for public consultations.

The Draft Law presents significant opportunity for the Kingdom to take a huge step forward towards modernizing the dispute-resolution framework and aligning more closely with international standards, such as the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration.

While the Draft Law represents a clear departure from the old law, with the changes it proposes, we have highlighted some of the key enhancements below:

1. Governing Law of the Arbitration Agreement
   The Draft Law introduces an express rule that the law governing an arbitration agreement will be either the law chosen by the parties or, in the absence of such choice, the law of the seat of arbitration. This change brings greater clarity and predictability for parties and reflects best