SUDAN Law and Practice Contributed by: Omer Ali Abdelrahman, Omer Ali Law Firm
1. General 1.1 Prevalence of Arbitration
ment, foreign companies prefer international arbitra - tion for reasons such as: • the negative perception by multinationals towards local courts in developing countries, including delays in dispute resolution; • the perception that international arbitrations are conducted in an impartial and neutral manner; and • the fact that foreign arbitration awards are enforce - able by Sudanese courts. 1.3 Arbitration Institutions The arbitral institutions most used for international arbitration in Sudan are: • the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC); • the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA); and • the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL). Recently, the Dubai International Arbitration Centre has been used, though in a limited manner. In Sudan, there are no recognised institutions for inter - national arbitration, and only a few small centres for domestic arbitration. However, theoretically a window for a wider range of international arbitration institutions is available for for- eign investors in Sudan, whether under various invest - ment protection treaties to which Sudan is party, or under the Investment Act 2021, which gives the for - eign investor the option to refer any dispute regarding its investment in Sudan to a specialised court or to resort to whichever is applicable from the following investment agreements (to all of which Sudan is party): • the Unified Agreement for the Investment of Arab Capital in Arab States 1980; • the Agreement for Settlement of Investment Dis - putes among Arab States 1974; • the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States 1965; • the General Agreement for Economic, Technical and Commercial Cooperation among Member
The Sudanese Arbitration Act 2016 (the “Arbitration Act”) is applicable to both international and domestic arbitration. Generally speaking, international arbitra - tion is prevalent when one party or both parties to the arbitration are foreigners. The main business areas where international arbitration is prevalent are oil, infrastructure, mining and construction. However, it should be noted that Sudan was subject to US and other sanctions from 1993, as a result of which there was a sharp drop in the number of foreign investors investing in the country, with the exception of the above industries; hence, there were a limited number of international arbitration cases. These sanc - tions were lifted recently, and, subject to positive reso - lution of the current political crisis in Sudan, there is potential for an increased number of foreign investors coming to the country. Domestic parties prefer litigation as a method of dis - pute resolution; however, arbitration is chosen for dispute resolution in contracts between sophisticated local businesses when the contract value is relative - ly high. An area where there is significant referral to domestic arbitration is banking, since there is legisla - tion that makes it mandatory to refer disputes regard - ing assets mortgaged to banks to arbitration (the Sale of Assets Mortgaged to Banks Act 1990). International arbitration is used mainly as the chosen means of dispute resolution by the parties in their con - tracts, when referred to arbitration by a court upon agreement of the parties to a dispute, as well as the method of dispute resolution or for enforcement of As mentioned previously, the industries that wit - ness more international arbitration cases than others are oil, infrastructure, mining and construction. The reason is that the contracts in these industries are mainly with foreign companies which prefer to resort to international arbitration for dispute resolution. With the majority of these contracts being with the govern - foreign arbitral awards. 1.2 Key Industries
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