INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 1/3LY
THE EMIRAT ES MARI T IME ARBI TRAT ION CENTRE : BRIDGING THE GAP IN THE MARI T IME MARKE T
The Dubai Maritime City Authority has recently announced an initiative to establish a specialised maritime arbitration centre known as the “Emirates Maritime Arbitration Centre” (EMAC). The centre is part of a strategy to increase confidence in the UAE market and was developed following consultation with shipping industry representatives, including a number of regional maritime law firms. EMAC seeks to fill a geographic, timezone gap in the international maritime arbitrationmarket between London and the Far East by establishing a regional maritime centre in the UAEwhich will operate inline withmarket demands. Crucially, it has been indicated that the default seat of EMAC arbitrations will be the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC). This is important because the designated seat of any arbitration determines, amongst other things, the law governing the conduct of the proceedings and the court whichwill have supervisory jurisdiction over the arbitration. It is that court whichwill ultimately decide important matters such as any challenges at the seat to the final award and the extent to which the parties are able to obtain interimmeasures from that supervisory court. The seat of arbitration is of relevance to parties in the region because the enforcement of a foreign arbitral award in the UAE is, despite recent advances, still relatively uncommon and can be problematic in the courts of the UAE (outside of the DIFC Courts). Althoughmost existingmaritime arbitral institutions recognise the right of the parties to select the seat of proceedings, it is currently uncommon for maritime parties to choose a UAE seat. Institutional arbitrations which are conducted pursuant to rules such as the LMAA, SMA, SIAC and HKIAC are usually seated in London, New York, Singapore or Hong Kong. As a result, parties often face difficulties when seeking to enforce in the UAE any foreignmaritime awards or court orders made during the proceedings in support of the arbitration. EMACwill seek to capitalise on the arbitration-friendly approach of the DIFC Courts by providing that the seat of any arbitration conducted under EMAC Rules will be the DIFC, unless the parties expressly agree a different seat. DIFC seated arbitrations are supervised by a common law court in the English language pursuant to the DIFC Arbitration Law (which is based on the UNCITRALModel Law). Critically, the DIFC Courts are party to aMemorandumof Guidance with the Dubai Courts, which together with the provisions of Dubai Law12 of 2014 (the Judicial Authority Law), provides for the automatic reciprocal enforcement of judgments (whichwould include arbitral awards in respect of which the DIFC Courts have ordered recognition and enforcement) without a review of the underlyingmerits of that judgment or the underlying award taking place. The advantage for EMAC of a DIFC seat is, therefore, the potential to limit a recalcitrant party’s ability to un-meritoriously challenge an order or award of the Tribunal. Any final award rendered in a DIFC seated arbitrationwill also be enforceable in any New York Convention signatory state, as the DIFC Courts are considered UAE Courts and, therefore, benefit from the UAE being a signatory to that Convention.
BY ALEC EMMERSON AND JOHN LEWIS, CONSULTANT AND SENIOR A SSOCIATE AT CLYDE & CO
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