EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Ahmed Kotb, Mohamed Ehab, Mohamed Sameh and Yasmine ElSakka, Khodeir & Partners
the dispute involving more than one state – would suf - fice to classify the arbitration as international, remov - ing the prior requirement that the dispute be linked to international trade. This change is expected to provide greater legal certainty and broaden the applicability of the EAL to a wider range of cross-border disputes. Further, the proposed amendment to Article 54 seeks to reduce the time limit for filing annulment actions from 90 to 30 days, while transferring jurisdiction over annulment cases from courts of first instance to the Court of Cassation. This centralisation aims to expe - dite annulment proceedings, thereby reducing delays and enhancing finality in arbitration disputes. The move also reflects an intent to concentrate judicial arbitration expertise within the highest civil court, pro - moting consistency in rulings. In response to a recent ruling by the Supreme Consti - tutional Court deeming certain provisions unconstitu - tional, the committee has proposed amendments to Article 58 to regulate the procedures for challenging enforcement orders of arbitral awards. This signals ongoing judicial-legislative dialogue and demon - strates the government’s commitment to ensuring enforcement mechanisms comply with constitutional standards. These amendments, if enacted, would mark a signifi - cant evolution in Egypt’s arbitration law, strengthening the legal framework’s clarity, efficiency and investor- friendliness. In addition to the general requirements provided by the Egyptian Civil Code (Law No. 131 of 1948) on the validity of agreements, Articles 1, 10, 11 and 12 of the EAL set the requirements for an arbitration agreement to be enforceable as follows, noting that failure to ful - fil any of these requirements renders the arbitration agreement invalid: • The parties (whether natural or legal persons) must have the capacity to dispose of their rights and conclude an arbitration agreement, noting that 3. The Arbitration Agreement 3.1 Enforceability
bringing the matter before state courts constitutes waiver of the concluded arbitration agreement. • The arbitration agreements included in administra - tive contracts must be concluded upon approval by the competent minister or by whoever assumes authority with respect to public entities. Delegation of authority shall not be authorised in this respect. • The subject of the dispute must be arbitrable, ie, it can be subject to compromise and could be amicably settled, such as a commercial or busi - ness-related dispute. Conversely, non-arbitrable disputes include, inter alia, those relating to rights and liabilities arising out of criminal offences and matrimonial/personal status disputes. • The issues in dispute must be clearly identified in the statement of claim submitted to the arbitra - tion proceedings if the arbitration agreement was concluded before the dispute arose. If the arbitra - tion agreement was concluded after the dispute arose, the parties must explicitly specify the issues subject to arbitration. • The arbitration agreement must be in writing and signed by the parties, which includes by electronic means. 3.2 Arbitrability Articles 2 and 11 of the EAL provide explicitly that the matters subject to arbitration must be of an economic nature, whether contractual or non-contractual, and in addition must be subject to amicable settlement; that is to say, matters where reconciliation is not permissi - ble cannot be arbitrable. The Egyptian Civil Code clar - ified the nature of these matters as those that involve personal status, public policy or criminal matters. The general approach used in Egypt to determine the arbitrability of a dispute is that the dispute must have arisen out of a legal relationship, whether contractual or non-contractual, and be of an economic nature. In this regard, the financial interest arising from a per - sonal status matter or a crime is arbitrable as it is permissible to reconciliate. 3.3 National Courts’ Approach In cases where the parties did not determine the law governing the arbitration agreement, the Egyptian courts tend to apply the law of the seat of arbitra - tion agreed by the parties, provided that the chosen
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