5th World Arbitration Conference concludes with key recommendations

The ‘5th World Conference on International Arbitration’ concluded its activities on Wednesday with a slew of significant recommendations.

Organised by the Qatar International Centre for Conciliation & Arbitration (QICCA), the two-day event held under the theme 'Arbitration in the Mena Region – Present and Future.'

In the closing session, QICCA secretary-general Ibrahim Shahbik announced the conference’s recommendations, which included allowing the review of Court of Appeal rulings on arbitration awards by the Court of Cassation and seeking UNCITRAL's recommendations when drafting arbitration and mediation legislation.

Recommendations also included issuing lists of qualified arbitrators along with clear guidelines and conditions to govern the appointment of arbitrators by competent courts in cases of ad hoc arbitration and developing advisory guidelines to regulate the conduct of arbitrators in ad hoc arbitration to enhance the arbitration process.

They paid tribute to the judicial approach that supports arbitration by facilitating the recognition of arbitration agreements by reference, while emphasising that this should only apply in clear reference cases, as per the established practice in comparative jurisprudence among model law jurisdictions.

The conference also affirmed the importance of subjecting international arbitration agreements to the law of the arbitration’s seat, unless otherwise agreed by parties, which aligns with the established approach in the jurisprudence of the supreme courts in Arab countries and other comparative jurisdictions.

It also called for the development of rules on arbitrators' disclosure process prior to issuing appointment awards in ad hoc arbitration, as well as the activation of the role of mediation in resolving disputes before the Investment Court in accordance with the Qatari Mediation Law.

The conference featured seven panel discussions on various topics related to international arbitration, with 35 speakers from prominent figures in international arbitration from GCC, Arab, and foreign countries.