SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Zeyad Khoshaim, Abdullah Alajlan and Kamil Mehiz, Khoshaim & Associates
When appointing an arbitrator, the competent court must adhere to the conditions specified in the arbitra - tion agreement and meet the requirements outlined in Article 14 of the Saudi Arbitration Law. The decision of the competent court appointing the arbitrator is not subject to appeal. 4.3 Court Intervention Please refer to 4.2 Default Procedures . 4.4 Challenge and Removal of Arbitrators Under Article 16 of the Saudi Arbitration Law, the grounds for challenging an arbitrator include several key factors. An arbitrator must have no vested interest in the dispute and must disclose any circumstances that might raise justifiable doubts about their impar - tiality or independence, both at the time of appoint - ment and throughout the arbitration proceedings. Additionally, an arbitrator is barred from considering or hearing a case for reasons like those that disqualify a judge, even if neither party requests it. Those rea - sons are as follows. • If the arbitrator or their spouse have a similar dis - pute to the dispute at hand. • If the arbitrator or their spouse developed an ani - mosity with one of the parties or the party’s spouse after the initiation of the proceedings; provided that such animosity was not developed with the intent of challenging the arbitrator. • If the arbitrator’s divorced spouse (with whom the arbitrator has a child) or if one of the arbitra - tor’s relatives (or their spouse’s relatives) up to the fourth degree (parents, grandparents, children, grandchildren, siblings, uncles, aunts and first cousins) have an ongoing dispute in court with one of the parties to the dispute or their spouse; provided that such dispute was not raised for the purpose of challenging the arbitrator. • If one of the parties is the arbitrator’s servant, or if the arbitrator used to eat or live with one of the parties, or if they had received a gift from one of the parties shortly before or after initiating the arbitration. • If the arbitrator has an animosity or amity with one of the parties to the point that it is likely that they
cannot rule without bias (see Article 96 of the Saudi Law of Civil Procedures). The Arbitration Law also specifies additional grounds for challenging an arbitrator, including: • The presence of circumstances that create justifi - able doubts about their impartiality or independ - ence. • If the arbitrator lacks the qualifications agreed upon by the parties. • If the arbitrator lacks the legal requirements to be appointed as arbitrator (see 4.1 Limits on Selec- tion ). Furthermore, a party cannot challenge an arbitrator they appointed or participated in appointing, except for reasons that became known after the arbitrator’s appointment. The parties to the arbitration can agree on the proce - dures for challenging arbitrators. However, if no pro - cedure is agreed, then the procedure highlighted in Article 17 of the Saudi Arbitration Law will apply. Article 17 of the Saudi Arbitration Law states that a party seeking to disqualify an arbitrator must submit a written challenge within five days of becoming aware of the arbitrator’s appointment or discovering grounds permitting challenging such arbitrator, such as doubts about the arbitrator’s impartiality or independence, or the lack of qualifications agreed upon by the parties. If the arbitrator does not recuse themselves or if the other party did not accept the petition within five days, the tribunal must decide on the disqualification within 15 days. Should the tribunal reject the challenge, the party may appeal to the competent court (see 4.1 Limits on Selection ) within 30 days, with the court’s decision being final and not subject to further appeal. Filing a disqualification petition with the arbitral tribu - nal suspends the arbitration proceedings. However, an appeal to the competent national court against the tribunal’s decision on the challenge does not suspend the proceedings.
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