Law and Practice
1. Rules Governing Insurer Disputes
1.1 Statutory and Procedural Regime
There are several statutory and procedural regimes that govern
insurance disputes within the UAE, depending upon the dispute forum
nominated by the parties, or, in certain circumstances, the dispute
forum that applies by default (ie, in the absence of an election,
or if certain threshold criteria are met or not met, as the case
may be).
By way of background, the parties to an insurance contract (ie,
the insurer and insured) within the UAE are permitted to nominate
either (i) "onshore"/local court litigation (the
Committee is mandatory before onshore litigation commences; see
under "Onshore Courts"), or (ii) arbitration before one
of the arbitration centres within the UAE (namely, the Dubai
International Arbitration Centre (DIAC), the Abu Dhabi Commercial
Conciliation & Arbitration Centre, the International Court of
Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC
