New York Convention Roadshow in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia

Report written by Lise Bosman and Courtney Kemp

In collaboration with the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA), ICCA hosted an energetic New York Convention Roadshow in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on 5 March 2024. The event was attended by around a dozen senior judges from Saudi Arabia’s Riyadh Court of Appeal in an informal seminar setting.

Participants were welcomed by Dr. Hamed Merah, CEO of the SCCA and Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Saleh Al-Ruhaimah, President of the Riyadh Court of Appeal and representative of the Ministry of Justice. Prof. Lise Bosman, ICCA Executive Director, then introduced ICCA, followed by an overview of the international arbitration system and the UNCITRAL Model Law provided by head of ICCA’s Judiciary Committee, Prof. Andres Jana. 

Prof. Mohamed Abdel Wahab, ICCA Governing Board Member, and Dr. Mohamed Abdel Raouf, ICCA Advisory Board Member, then provided an overview of the 1958 New York Convention before delving into the application of the Convention globally and in Saudi Arabia, stressing the importance of consistent application by judicial courts. Dr. Mostafa Abdel Ghaffar, judge of the Cairo Court of Appeal, provided an overview of enforcement of “Arab” arbitral awards in Arab countries.

The SCCA briefed participants on the results of a recent SCCA survey into refusals of enforcement of domestic Saudi arbitral awards based on the Sharia law. Debate was bilingual and vigorous, with participants engaging actively with each other and with guest specialists.