SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Zeyad Khoshaim, Abdullah Alajlan and Kamil Mehiz, Khoshaim & Associates
If the disqualification is granted, either by the tribunal or the court on appeal, all prior arbitration procedures, including any awards, are rendered null and void. 4.5 Arbitrator Requirements Under Article 16 of the Saudi Arbitration Law, an arbi - trator must disclose in writing any circumstances likely to give rise to justifiable doubts about his independ - ence and impartiality from the time of his appointment and throughout the arbitration process. Please refer to 4.2 Default Procedures for more details. The Saudi Arbitration Law recognises the principle of competence-competence. Article 20 stipulates that the arbitral tribunal decides on all jurisdictional issues, including challenges to the validity of the arbitration agreement or claims that the dispute is not covered by the agreement. 5.2 Circumstances for Court Intervention The Saudi Arbitration Law supports minimal court intervention, highlighting the arbitral tribunal’s inde - pendence and the parties’ autonomy. However, it permits court intervention under specific conditions. Notably, the court can review jurisdictional issues only if the arbitral tribunal rejects a plea of lack of jurisdic - tion. This review occurs exclusively at the annulment stage (see Article 20 (3) of the Saudi Arbitration Law). 5.3 Timing of Challenge Parties can challenge the arbitral tribunal’s jurisdic - tion in court only after the tribunal has rendered a final award. Article 20 (3) of the Saudi Arbitration Law states that a decision by the arbitral tribunal to reject a defence based on the tribunal’s lack of jurisdiction can only be challenged during the annulment stage, which occurs after the final award has been issued. 5.4 Standard of Judicial Review for Jurisdiction/Admissibility If a tribunal rejects a jurisdictional challenge and the affected party files a request for annulment under Arti - cle 50 (4) of the Saudi Arbitration Law, the competent court will evaluate the appeal based solely on proce - 5. Jurisdiction 5.1 Challenges to Jurisdiction
dural aspects of the jurisdictional issue, without delv - ing into the facts or merits of the underlying dispute. The court will review the relevant documents, particu - larly the arbitration agreement or clause, and render its decision accordingly. If the court upholds the award as valid, this decision is final and cannot be appealed, as outlined in Article 51 (2) of the Saudi Arbitration Law. If the court decides to annul the award, the los - ing party may appeal the decision within 30 days of receiving the court’s notification. In general, courts rarely annul arbitration awards absent a clear violation of the law. 5.5 Breach of Arbitration Agreement Under the competence-competence principle, the Saudi Arbitration Law outlines specific procedures when a dispute is brought before a court despite being covered by an arbitration agreement. Accord - ing to Article 11, the court must dismiss the case if the defendant raises a jurisdictional defence based on the arbitration agreement before addressing any other issues. Additionally, Article 12 requires the court to refer the parties to arbitration if an agreement to resort to arbi - tration is reached while the dispute is being consid - ered before the competent court. There have been few instances where courts have denied requests to compel arbitration due to viola - tions of the arbitration agreement, such as failing to follow agreed upon pre-arbitration steps. Recently, however, courts have generally deferred these mat - ters to the arbitral tribunal, in accordance with Article 20 of the Arbitration Law. 5.6 Jurisdiction Over Third Parties Although the Arbitration Law does not address multi- party arbitration directly, Article 13 of the Implement - ing Regulation allows the arbitral tribunal to approve the intervention or joinder of a third party, provided all parties, including the third party, give their explicit consent. Absent such consent, the tribunal cannot assume jurisdiction over third parties.
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