A Study Of Procedures For The Enforcement Of Commercial Arbitral Awards In Saudi Arabia

Arbitration has a long-standing history in Arab countries,including Saudi Arabia.Compared with countries such as the UAE and Egypt,the development of arbitration in Saudi Arabia is relatively slow.In the Quran,the Prophet Muhammad’s attitude towards arbitration is more encouraging.However,Saudi Arabia’s conservatism in the field of arbitration is due to unfair treatment in a series of arbitration cases after its founding,which led Saudi Arabia to believe that arbitration could not fairly protect the interests of the parties.Additionally,due to the lack of codification of Shariah law and Saudi public order,many arbitration awards may be set aside by Saudi courts,which has led to the international perception of Saudi Arabia as a country that sets aside awards at will.With the accelerating pace of globalization and the need for foreign technology capital,Saudi Arabia embarked on a radical reform of its judiciary,and in the decade since the enactment of the Saudi Arbitration Law in 2012,Saudi Arabia has become a country that is favorable for arbitration and credible in enforcing arbitral awards.Saudi Arabia has a special mechanism for arbitration enforcement procedures.This thesis provides a detailed overview of the development of legal norms for Saudi commercial arbitral awards and outlines the enforcement procedures for Saudi commercial arbitral awards.It also systematically studies the issue of setting aside of Saudi commercial arbitral awards.Based on this research,this thesis proposes directions for further optimisation of the enforcement of commercial arbitral awards in Saudi Arabia,and finally proposes ways to optimise the enforcement of arbitral awards in China in the light of the practice of the Arbitration Law in China and the forthcoming amendments to the Arbitration Law.This thesis focuses on the legal framework and practical situation of enforcing Saudi commercial arbitration awards and is divided into five chapters.Chapter One reviews the development of legal norms for Saudi commercial arbitration and divides the legislative phases of Saudi domestic commercial arbitration into two stages:the period after the country’s founding and before the oil boom and the period after the oil boom to the present.In the first stage,Saudi Arabia’s arbitration system was strongly influenced by conservatism.This thesis believes that the reason for this conservatism in Saudi Arabia was unfair treatment in a series of arbitration cases after its founding.This phenomenon gradually disappeared only in the second stage.The eradication of conservatism and the development of arbitration systems should be attributed to the oil boom.In order to introduce technology capital as soon as possible and extend the domestic industrial chain,Saudi Arabia overcame conservatism and vigorously developed its arbitration system.Chapter Two compares the arbitral award enforcement procedures in the 1983 Saudi Arbitration Law and the 2012 Saudi Arbitration Law.The study shows that the enforcement procedures of the 2012 Saudi Arbitration Law were significantly simplified compared to those in 1983.Saudi Arabia changed the regulatory body for arbitration and the competent court no longer reviews the specific content of the award,transforming from an obstacle to the enforcement of the award to a promoter of the enforcement of the award.Chapter Three focuses on the remedies after a commercial arbitration award is made in Saudi Arabia.This chapter studies the attitudes of various Islamic schools of law towards setting aside arbitration awards,the reasons for setting aside awards in Saudi Arabia,the consequences of setting aside awards,and judicial practice in enforcing arbitration awards.For example,as the most authoritative school of law in Saudi Arabia,Hanbali school believes that arbitration awards have the same effect as court judgments,and that setting aside awards should be subject to the same conditions as setting aside court judgments.According to the 2012 Saudi Arbitration Law,reasons for setting aside awards include application by a party or court authority.After an award is set aside,if there is no invalid reason for the arbitration agreement,parties should still resolve disputes through rearbitration.This also reflects that the 2012 Saudi Arbitration Law fully respects the parties’autonomy principle.Saudi Arabia is promoting arbitration system reform and trying to increase the transparency of arbitration by publishing awards.Judicial practice in Saudi Arabia also shows that its rate of setting aside awards is continuously declining,which also indicates that its reform of the arbitration system has achieved remarkable results.Chapter Four proposes suggestions and directions for optimizing commercial arbitration award enforcement procedure in Saudi Arabia.Saudi Arabia may further clarify the time point when an award takes effect,i.e.,whether an award takes effect should not be linked to whether the waiting period has passed;at the same time,it shall further simplify the award enforcement procedure,whether an award is submitted to the competent court should not affect award enforcement.Saudi Arabia should also expand the scope of arbitration subjects and fully allow the government to participate in an arbitration as a party.Chapter Five analyzes the Saudi arbitration system and its development history from a comparative law perspective,and provides insights into the enforcement procedures of commercial arbitration awards in China.First,China shall clarify the re-arbitration system after an award is set aside.For cases where an award is set aside not due to the invalidity of the arbitration agreement,parties should be required to re-arbitrate to resolve disputes.Second,it should further clarify the time point when an award takes effect.When enforcing an award,the enforcement court shall not require parties to provide proof that an award has taken effect.Finally,the system of non-enforcement of awards on the application should be abolished in line with the international trend.