Arbitration Hearings in UAE: Procedures, Protocols, and Winning Strategies

The tribunal's first procedural order is the rulebook the hearing runs on. It fixes the timetable, the form of witness statements, whether there will be document production and on what basis, how many rounds of submissions each side gets, and how the hearing itself is conducted. Counsel who work to that order from the day it is issued arrive at a hearing they have planned. Counsel who file it and move on meet its terms at the point when nothing can be done about them.

This article follows a UAE arbitration through the three phases where cases are actually won and lost: preparation, the hearing, and what follows it. Arbitration in the UAE is governed by Federal Law No. 6 of 2018, as amended, and administered proceedings run under institutional rules — DIAC in Dubai and the ICC among the international institutions frequently chosen for UAE-seated disputes.

Before the hearing

Read the procedural order as a set of obligations

Procedural orders are not administrative background. They are the rules of the proceeding, and tribunals enforce them. A witness statement served late may not be admitted. A document disclosed after the cut-off may be excluded, or admitted only on terms that cost the party the advantage it hoped for. In a construction arbitration under the DIAC rules, a party that missed the date for its witness list found the evidence shut out and lost issues it might otherwise have won.

The discipline is to convert every date in the order into a working schedule the moment it is issued, working backwards from each deadline to when drafting must begin. Where a direction is ambiguous, or a date is not achievable, raise it with the tribunal early. Tribunals are generally receptive to a well-founded application made in good time and much less receptive to one made when the deadline has already passed.

Build the record so it can be used

Everything the tribunal will rely on has to be in the bundle, and the bundle has to be usable by three arbitrators, opposing counsel and a witness under pressure — all at once.

In practice that means an electronic bundle with consistent pagination, an index that reflects what documents actually are, bookmarks that work, and internal hyperlinking from submissions to exhibits. Where documents are in Arabic and the proceeding is in English, or the reverse, translations need to be prepared early and their accuracy agreed with the other side where possible, because a translation dispute discovered during cross-examination is a distraction from the point being made. Tribunals differ in their preferences on format; asking is quicker than guessing.

Prepare witnesses for the process, not for answers

Witness evidence in international arbitration is given in writing first, with cross-examination taking up most of the hearing time. Preparation means making sure the witness understands the process — what a witness statement is, what cross-examination is for, why answering the question asked rather than the question expected matters, and what happens if a document contradicts them.

Practice sessions on the shape of questioning are legitimate and useful. Rehearsing answers is not, and tribunals recognise a coached witness quickly, at real cost to the party that produced them. The same applies to experts: an expert report is stronger for stating its assumptions and acknowledging the range of reasonable opinion than for asserting certainty it cannot defend, because the assertion is exactly what opposing counsel will spend the cross-examination dismantling.

Preparation, in short

• Diarise every date in the procedural orders and work backwards from each.
• Confirm witness statements, expert reports and exhibit lists are complete and served in time.
• Agree the bundle format with the tribunal and the other side; check pagination, index and hyperlinks work.
• Arrange translations early and try to agree them.
• Run familiarisation sessions with each factual witness and each expert.
• Raise any ambiguity in the directions with the tribunal while there is still time to fix it.

At the hearing

Know who you are addressing

UAE-seated tribunals are frequently mixed: arbitrators from civil law backgrounds sitting with arbitrators trained in common law, sometimes with a technical specialist in construction or maritime matters. That composition affects what will land. An arbitrator with sector expertise will want industry practice engaged with directly. An arbitrator from a civil law tradition will expect the argument anchored in the contract and the applicable law rather than built primarily from case authority.

None of this is about telling different arbitrators different things. It is about making one case in terms all of them can follow.

Oral argument does a specific job

Opening and closing submissions are not the written case read aloud. The tribunal has read the written case. What the hearing offers is the chance to explain the two or three issues on which the outcome actually turns, and to answer the tribunal's questions about them.

Useful preparation for oral argument is therefore mostly about anticipation: identifying which questions the tribunal is likely to ask, having the document reference ready for each, and being willing to abandon the prepared structure when a member of the tribunal signals what is troubling them. A question from the tribunal is information about how the case is being received, and answering it directly is worth more than finishing the paragraph.

Cross-examination and objections

Cross-examination in arbitration is narrower than in litigation. Time is allocated in advance, and a tribunal that has given each side a fixed number of hours will hold them to it. That forces selection: a small number of points that matter, taken through the documents, is more effective than a tour of the whole case.

Objections should be used sparingly and for real problems — questions outside the pleaded case, documents not in the bundle, questions that misstate what a document says. A running commentary of objections irritates tribunals and rarely changes anything. Where the other side attempts to introduce material that the procedural order excluded, the objection is worth making properly, on the record, by reference to the order.

Late evidence and other surprises

A party arriving at the hearing with new documents, said to have only just been found, is a familiar situation. The response is procedural rather than rhetorical: identify what the procedural order and the applicable rules say about late evidence, ask what explanation is offered for the timing, and if the material is admitted, ask for what is needed to deal with it fairly. Tribunals are usually alert to the fairness point, and a measured application is more likely to succeed than an objection framed as an accusation.

In the room

• Reduce the case to the issues that decide it and open on those.
• Have the bundle reference ready for every proposition you intend to advance.
• Track the time allocation for cross-examination and plan within it.
• Object where the procedural order or the rules are actually breached, and not otherwise.
• Answer the tribunal's questions when they are asked, not later.

After the hearing

Post-hearing briefs

Post-hearing submissions are where a case is tied to the evidence that was actually given. The value is in specificity: what each witness accepted under cross-examination, with the transcript reference; which documents support which finding, with the bundle reference; and what the tribunal is being asked to decide, expressed in terms it could adopt.

Where the tribunal has issued a list of questions, answer those questions in the order asked. A brief that restates the opening submissions while ignoring what the tribunal said it wanted to know is a wasted opportunity — and it is often the last thing the tribunal reads before deliberating.

Requests from the tribunal

Tribunals sometimes ask for further documents, a clarification or a schedule of quantum after the hearing closes. Answer these promptly and precisely, without using them as a route to reopen arguments already made. A tribunal that asked a narrow question and receives further advocacy attached to it notices.

Thinking about enforcement before the award

An award is only as valuable as its enforceability, and enforcement questions are better addressed while the proceeding is still running than after it ends. Where the respondent's assets are outside the UAE, the New York Convention is the framework under which recognition is sought, and the requirements of the enforcing jurisdiction should be understood in advance. Where enforcement will be in the UAE, the award must satisfy the requirements of the arbitration law, and awards are ratified through the courts.

Two practical consequences follow. First, procedural regularity throughout the proceeding matters beyond the hearing itself — a party denied a proper opportunity to present its case has a ground of challenge, so a tribunal and counsel both have reasons to keep the record clean. Second, the seat is a substantive choice made in the arbitration clause, long before any dispute, and it should be made with enforcement in mind rather than as a drafting afterthought.

Once the hearing closes

• Write the post-hearing brief from the transcript, with references.
• Answer the tribunal's listed questions in the order given.
• Respond to post-hearing requests narrowly and quickly.
• Confirm the enforcement route and what the enforcing forum will require.

Conclusion

Arbitration rewards preparation of an unglamorous kind: reading the procedural order properly, building a bundle people can use, putting witnesses in front of the tribunal who understand what is being asked of them, and arguing the few issues that decide the case. The hearing is where that work becomes visible. It is not where it gets done.

How we can help

• International Arbitration Services — representation in institutional and ad hoc proceedings.
• Commercial Litigation in UAE — related court proceedings, including ratification and enforcement.
• Dispute Resolution Strategies — choosing the forum and the seat before a dispute arises.
• Contract Drafting and Review — arbitration clauses that work when they are needed.

Related Services: Explore our Arbitration Uae Strategy and Arbitration Uae Dubai services for practical legal support in this area.

Disclaimer

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Please consult with a qualified attorney for specific guidance on your situation.

Get Legal Guidance

To discuss a hearing you are preparing for, or an arbitration clause you are about to sign, speak to the Nour Attorneys International Arbitration Dubai team.

Author: Nour Attorneys Team

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