EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Muhammad Ussama and Adam El Shalakany, Shalakany Law Office
10. Dispute Resolution and AI 10.1 Regulation
9.2 Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Domestic arbitral awards are enforced by virtue of a court order that is issued approving the winning par- ty’s application for the issuance of a writ of execution for the relevant award. In order for such applications to be accepted, Egyptian courts should, in addition to ascertaining that all required documents are present- ed, ensure that the relevant award does not contain anything that contradicts Egyptian public order and/or mandatory statutory provisions of Egyptian law. Akin to domestic arbitral awards, foreign arbitral awards are enforced pursuant to the provisions of the Egyptian Arbitration Law. Hence, the same process and requirements apply. 9.3 Length of Time Enforcement proceedings typically consume a lengthy period of time and could be anywhere between 16 and 32 months. These proceedings often get more com- plicated if assets are difficult to locate and, accord- ingly, bankruptcy proceedings are pursued against the losing party. 9.4 Grounds for Resisting Enforcement The most common and successful ground is that of public order and mandatory provisions of Egyptian law. To succeed, the losing party must prove that the arbitral award contains violations of Egyptian public order and/or mandatory provisions of Egyptian law. However, it should be noted in this respect that it is a well-established principle that courts would not reject the total enforcement of a foreign judgment or arbitral award except in situations where all the items of relief granted in the dispositive part of the foreign judg- ment or award contradict Egyptian public order and/ or mandatory provisions of Egyptian law. As such, if the violation can be localised and separated from the rest of the relief granted in the dispositive part of the foreign judgment or award, then an Egyptian court should grant partial enforcement.
The use of artificial intelligence in dispute resolution is not regulated in Egypt. However, Egyptian courts, arbitral tribunals and practitioners are carefully moni- toring worldwide developments in this area and pru- dent parties are being careful in their use of artificial intelligence to avoid any negative consequences. We expect that international soft law instruments would be the ones to first regulate the use of artificial intel- ligence, and that Egyptian legislation tackling and regulating this area may not be forthcoming in the near future. 10.2 Impact This is not applicable in this jurisdiction. 10.3 Future Egyptian courts are yet to take an official stance con- cerning the use of AI as a means to improve efficiency. However, many Egyptian judges are keen on utilis- ing AI and on staying up to date with the fast-paced developments in this area. While it is difficult to make accurate predictions concerning the use of AI in dis- pute resolution and how such use will evolve in Egypt, we are of the opinion that, in light of cases that are reported on in international mediums of press and media, prudent parties (whether judges, arbitrators, counsel, experts, etc) would, in the coming period, approach the use of AI with a great level of care so that the potential benefits of such use would not be countered with court-imposed sanctions and/or any other potential legal ramification.
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