UAE Law and Practice Contributed by: Gerard Moore, Patricia Ugalde Revilla, Antonin Sobek and Alanood Sinjab, Mayer Brown
Offshore (ADGM) Section 48 of the ADGM Arbitration Regulations pro - vides a clear court-assistance mechanism. The tri - bunal, or a party with tribunal approval, may request assistance from the ADGM court or another compe - tent court in taking evidence, including examination of witnesses orally or in writing, production of docu - ments, inspection/preservation/custody of property, and sampling or experiments. The court may execute the request within its competence and according to its own rules on taking evidence. Proceedings in the UAE are confidential under all applicable legal frameworks, meaning that informa - tion in arbitral proceedings cannot be disclosed in subsequent proceedings: • onshore – as set out in 2.1 Governing Law , Arti - cle 33 (1) of the UAE Arbitration Law preserves the confidentiality of the arbitration proceedings, unless otherwise agreed by the parties; and • offshore – likewise, Article 14 of the DIFC Arbitra - tion Law and Section 45 of the ADGM Arbitration Regulations also provide for such confidentiality, with a further exception in the event that publica - tion is required in legal proceedings. 9. Confidentiality 9.1 Extent of Confidentiality The confidentiality obligation extends to all informa - tion relating to the arbitral proceedings, including pleadings, submissions, evidence, procedural orders and awards. The institutional rules supplement the statutory con - fidentiality framework (see, for instance, Article 47 of the ArbitrateAD 2024 Rules; Article 40 of the DIAC 2022 Rules). 10. The Award 10.1 Legal Requirements An arbitral award must comply with several legal requirements.
parties are free to agree on procedure, and the tribu - nal has express power to determine the admissibility, relevance, materiality and weight of evidence. The rules of evidence are otherwise typically set out in the institutional rules adopted by the parties. For instance, under the DIAC 2022 Rules, Article 25 sets out various provisions relating to burden of proof and evidence, with the key principle being that “each party shall have the burden of proving the facts relied on to support its claim or defence”. The ArbitrateAD 2024 Rules contain equivalent provisions at Article 31. 8.3 Powers of Compulsion The tribunal can manage evidence and has broad discretion to order parties to produce documents, make witnesses available, and respond to questions. A party’s failure to comply may result in adverse inferences being drawn against that party. However, coercive powers against non-parties – and sanctions for non-compliance by witnesses – generally require court assistance. Onshore Article 36 of the UAE Arbitration Law is the key pro - vision. The tribunal may, on its own initiative or at a party’s request, seek assistance from the competent court to obtain evidence. The court may: • order witnesses to appear before the tribunal to give oral testimony; • order the submission of documents or other evi - dentiary materials; • impose penalties on a witness who fails to attend or refuses to testify without justification; • order a third party to produce documents in its possession that are necessary to decide the dis - pute; and • issue judicial delegation orders. Offshore (DIFC) The specific court-assistance provision is Article 34 of the DIFC Arbitration Law. It provides that the tribunal, or a party with the tribunal’s approval, may request assistance from the DIFC court in taking evidence, and that the DIFC court may execute the request within its competence and according to its own rules on taking evidence.
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