The UAE government has announced that the Federal National
Council has approved the draft Arbitration Law. In this briefing,
we look at the next steps for this important piece of legislation,
and the scope of its application.
Legislation to deal specifically with arbitration has been long
awaited by UAE practitioners and the business community
alike. Early drafts of this law were widely circulated and
commented on as far back as 2007. Today's news of the
FNC's approval of the draft law is a promising sign that this
is the next significant law to be issued in the government's
agenda for legislative reform.
Arbitration is an important part of the UAE's modernising
economic reforms. It is one of the measures to be taken to
attract foreign investment into the country, alongside the new
Commercial Companies Law, the Bankruptcy Law and the UAE VAT and
excise tax legislation, all of which have been issued in the last
few years.
