Resolving Arbitration Disputes Effectively
Most of what decides a UAE arbitration is fixed in the clause long before there is anything to argue about: the seat, the institution, and whether the person who signed could bind the company to arbitrate at all.
Start with the clause in the contract: agreements drafted before Dubai Decree No. 34 of 2021 may still name the DIFC-LCIA, whose caseload went to DIAC, while ADCCAC now operates as arbitrateAD. Then why the seat rather than the venue decides which court supervises the arbitration, why a signatory needs authority to bind the company to arbitrate, and what ratification cannot reopen.
Reviewed by Mohamed Noureldin, Founder, Managing Partner & Senior Legal Consultant
Before anything else, read the arbitration clause in the contract you are about to argue about. There is a good chance it names an institution that no longer administers cases in the form the clause assumes.
The DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre was abolished by Dubai Decree No. 34 of 2021 and its caseload directed to the Dubai International Arbitration Centre. The Abu Dhabi Commercial Conciliation and Arbitration Centre was restructured as arbitrateAD from 2024. Any contract drafted before those changes — which is a great many contracts still in force — may point to a body that has been superseded. Clauses of that kind are generally workable, but working them out is a preliminary fight that costs months and takes place before anyone has looked at the merits.
So the first piece of advice on resolving arbitration disputes has nothing to do with disputes: review the clauses across your contract portfolio now, and repaper the ones that need it at the next amendment or renewal, when it is free.
Related: Our commercial arbitration practice advises on clause drafting, conduct of arbitrations, and enforcement of awards in the UAE.
The seat decides who supervises you
The choice that carries the most weight in a UAE arbitration clause is the seat, and it is the one most often confused with the venue. The venue is where the hearing physically happens, and it can change for convenience. The seat is the legal home of the arbitration: it determines which arbitration law governs the process and which court supervises it, appoints or removes arbitrators where necessary, supports the tribunal, and hears any application to set the award aside.
Arbitrations seated onshore in the UAE are governed by Federal Law No. 6 of 2018, as amended in 2023, and supervised by the onshore courts. The DIFC remains available as a seat, with its own arbitration legislation and the DIFC Courts in the supervisory role; ADGM likewise has its own regime and its own court. Those are genuinely different systems, and the difference shows up at exactly the moments when it is too late to change: an application for interim relief, a challenge to an arbitrator, an attempt to set aside.
None of this is a reason to prefer one over another in the abstract. It is a reason to choose deliberately, in writing, at the drafting stage — and to make sure the seat, the institution, the rules and the language chosen are consistent with each other. Clauses that name one institution's rules while seating the arbitration somewhere those rules do not fit are a standard source of preliminary applications.
Who signed it, and were they entitled to
An arbitration agreement takes a dispute away from the courts, and UAE law treats agreeing to that as more than ordinary contractual housekeeping. The person who signs on behalf of a company needs specific authority to bind it to arbitration; a general power to conduct business or to sign commercial contracts is not necessarily enough.
This is the point on which otherwise strong cases fail, and it fails late — typically when the successful party goes to enforce and the losing party argues that there was never a valid agreement to arbitrate at all. The remedy is unexciting and effective: confirm at signing that the signatory holds the authority, keep the constitutional documents, board resolution or power of attorney that shows it, and check the same for the counterparty. A file note taken at signature is worth more than an expert opinion three years later.
Running the case
Two habits separate parties that do well in arbitration here from parties that do not.
The first is documentary discipline. Tribunals sitting on UAE-connected disputes rely heavily on the contemporaneous record — contracts, variations, notices, invoices, site records, correspondence — and treat recollection with caution. A party that can produce a complete, indexed and consistently translated file is in a better position than one relying on witnesses to explain what the documents do not show. Where the arbitration is in English but the underlying dealings were in Arabic, or the reverse, translation quality is a substantive issue and not an administrative one.
The second is using the interim stage. Tribunals can order interim measures, but a tribunal has to be constituted first, which takes time, and its orders bind the parties rather than third parties such as banks. Where there is a real risk of assets being moved, an application to the court for attachment can be made in support of the arbitration, and is frequently the step that brings a defendant to the table. A claimant that waits for the award before thinking about security is often enforcing against an empty company.
Related: We act in commercial contract disputes in parallel with arbitration proceedings, including applications for security over assets.
The award is not the end
An award has to be recognised before it can be executed against assets. Ratification is sought from the competent UAE court, and a party resisting the award raises its objections there. The grounds available are limited, and they are procedural in character — the validity of the arbitration agreement, the constitution of the tribunal, whether a party was properly able to present its case, whether the tribunal went beyond what was referred to it, and public policy. The court is not being invited to rehear the case, and applications that in substance ask it to do so do not succeed.
The practical implications run backwards into how the arbitration is conducted. Procedural regularity is worth protecting throughout: proper service and notice at every stage, a tribunal appointed strictly in accordance with the clause, disclosure by arbitrators of anything bearing on independence, an award that deals with each claim referred and no more, and objections raised at the time rather than saved up. Most successful annulment applications rest on something the winning party could have prevented while the arbitration was still running.
Foreign awards brought to the UAE are recognised under the New York Convention, to which the UAE is a party. Awards made here that need to be enforced abroad travel on the same basis, which remains one of the strongest arguments for arbitrating rather than litigating where the counterparty's assets are outside the country.
Before you sign the clause
- Name a seat, and know which court that puts you in front of.
- Name an institution that currently exists and administers cases, and use that institution's model clause as the starting point.
- Fix the language, the number of arbitrators and the appointment mechanism.
- Confirm that whoever signs has authority to bind the company to arbitration, and keep the evidence of it.
- Check where the counterparty's assets are, and ask whether an award from your chosen seat can reach them.
Five minutes at the drafting stage removes the arguments that otherwise consume the first year of a dispute.
Related Services: Explore our Arbitration service for clause review, arbitral proceedings and enforcement across the UAE and DIFC.
Disclaimer: The information provided in this article is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should seek professional legal advice tailored to their specific circumstances before making any decisions or taking any action based on the content of this article.
Nour Attorneys Team
