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20 J. Legal Ethical & Regul. Isses 1 (2017)

handle is hein.journals/jnlolletl20 and id is 1 raw text is: Journal of Legal, Ethical and Regulatory Issues THE IMPACT OF SHARIA ON THE ACCEPTANCE OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION IN THE COUNTRIES OF THE GULF COOPERATION COUNCIL Dr. Mutasim Ahmad Alqudah, United Arab Emirates University ABSTRACT Members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have been slow in accepting modern arbitration practices. Some of the GCC countries have only recently started to modernize their arbitration laws to bring them in line with these modern practices. Sharia has always been viewed as an obstacle to the development of arbitration in this part of the world, and many still see it as an impediment to the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in the GCC countries. In this article, the author argues that there is enough flexibility within sharia to accommodate modern international arbitration practices, and the delay in accepting these practices is attributed to other factors, mainly the negative experience the GCC countries have had with arbitration. This paper concludes that arbitration in the GCC will realise its fullest potential only if the modernization of arbitration laws is combined with a greater understanding and acceptance, by the western legal community, of sharia as a legal system. Keywords: Sharia, Arbitration, GCC, Arbitration Agreement, Choice of Law, Enforcement, Public Policy INTRODUCTION With almost half of the world's oil reserves lying underneath their territories, countries of the Gulf Co-operation Council (hereinafter GCC) are strongly represented on the international business map. Enterprises of all sizes and forms are keen to enter the GCC region, particularly countries like the United Arab Emirates (hereinafter UAE), which have become a major business hub, not only for GCC countries but also for a large part of the Middle East and North Africa (hereinafter MENA). However, this interest in trading with the GCC has long been accompanied by complaints about the lack of modern arbitration laws in many of its member states(Arthur J. Gemmell, 2006). Oman, in 1997, passed legislation implementing the UNCITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration of 1985 (as amended in 2006) (hereinafter the Model Law). However, other GCC countries have been slow in modernizing their national arbitration laws. Saudi Arabia adopted a new arbitration law in 2012, which is partially based on the Model Law (Faris Nesheiwat, Ali Al-Khasawneh, Santa Clara, 2015). Bahrain recently adopted a new arbitration law in 2015, also based on the Model Law 1. The UAE and Qatar recently established arbitration centres affiliated with key arbitral institutions in the world2, although draft arbitration laws in both of these countries are still pending. The Kuwaiti arbitration law issued in 1995 has been subject to heavy criticism and it is often described as not being in line with modern arbitration practices (Dalal Al Houti, 2016). The fact that GCC countries are parties to 1544-0044-20-1-101 Volume 20, Issue 1, 2017 1

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