How To Enforce A Foreign Arbitral Award In The UAE

A foreign arbitral award can be enforced in the UAE, and in most cases more readily than a foreign court judgment. The UAE acceded to the New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in 2006, by Federal Decree No. 43 of 2006, which obliges UAE courts to recognise and enforce awards made in other contracting states, subject to the Convention’s limited grounds of refusal.

Obtaining the award, however, is merely the beginning of recovery processes. The value of an award is measured by the assets you can reach with it, and the enforcement strategy should be built around where those assets sit.

The Legal Framework

Enforcement of foreign awards before the onshore UAE courts proceeds under the Civil Procedure Code, Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022, which governs the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments and awards.