LEBANON Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohamed Alem, Mazen Ghosn and Rana Kahwagi, Alem & Associates
granted exclusive jurisdiction to Lebanese courts at the expense of other state judicial bodies, as opposed to non-state bodies such as arbitral tribunals (Court of First Instance of Beirut, 14 July 2015, Decision 376/74/2013). According to the Court of First Instance of Beirut, the provisions of Article 5 of DL 34/67 aim to prevent parties from settling disputes arising from commercial representation agreements only before foreign state courts, but not before arbitral tribunals. Such an exclusion is particularly relevant in the con - text of anti-suit injunctions. It follows that the jurisdic - tion conferred on Lebanese courts by Article 5 of DL 34/67 would not have the effect of rendering disputes arising out of commercial representation agreements non-arbitrable. Interpretation of arbitration agreements Another interesting development in the sphere of Leb - anese arbitration law is the increasingly liberal inter - pretation of arbitration agreements and their validity by Lebanese courts. A telling example is a decision rendered by the Court of First Instance of Beirut, which held that an invalid term contained in an arbitration agreement does not have the effect of nullifying the entire arbitration agree - ment (Court of First Instance of Beirut, 5 June 2013, Decision 24/63). Similarly, the same Court of First Instance of Beirut held that insolvency proceedings do not lead to the nullity of arbitration agreements entered into by the insolvent debtor, and that the liquidator is obliged to enforce arbitration agreements in the same manner as any other act of disposition or agreement entered into by the debtor prior to the declaration of the debtor’s bankruptcy (Court of First Instance of Beirut, 13 Feb - ruary 2013, Decision 9/51). In the same decision, the Beirut Court of First Instance held that the absence of an express reference to the number of arbitrators does not lead to the nullity of the arbitration agreement. In addition, the Beirut Court of Appeal recently reaf - firmed a well-established jurisprudential trend that qualifies an arbitration agreement as an administra - tive act that falls within the scope of the day-to-day
management of a company and therefore does not require prior special approval by the company’s board of directors. Extension of arbitration to non-signatories Finally, with regard to the extension of arbitration agreements to non-signatories, the Court of First Instance of Beirut reaffirmed that a non-signatory is bound by an arbitration agreement if it has partici - pated in the negotiation and/or implementation of the underlying agreement, so as to confirm its intention to be bound by it (Court of First Instance of Beirut, 14 January 2013, Decision 2/44). 1.2 Key Industries The industries in which arbitration is the predominant method of dispute resolution are essentially construc - tion, banking and finance, real estate, telecommunica - tions and franchising. In addition, following the signing of offshore oil and gas exploration and production agreements in Leba - non during 2018, and given that these agreements include an ICC arbitration clause, it is reasonable to expect that arbitration will be used as the prevailing dispute resolution method in the newly formed oil and gas industry. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions LAMC (see 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration ) is the main institution administering domestic arbitration in Leb - anon. The Rules of Arbitration of LAMC have been substantially revised, and the new version entered into force on 1 July 2024. These new Rules reflect the latest trends and practices in the field of inter - national arbitration and are inspired by the new rules adopted by regional arbitration centres such as the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA) and DIAC. In addition, the Beirut Bar Association established the Lebanese and International Arbitration Centre of the Beirut Bar Association (LIAC-BBA) in 2014 to admin - ister domestic and international arbitrations. The LIAC-BBA has issued its own arbitration rules, but has not yet published the number of cases currently registered.
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