SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Zeyad Khoshaim, Abdullah Alajlan, Kamil Mehiz and Sarah Sedky, K&A
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 that permit 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. 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 their independ - ence and impartiality from the time of their appoint - ment 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 - 5. Jurisdiction 5.1 Challenges to Jurisdiction
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 - 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 in the absence of a clear violation of the law. In fact, based on a recent statistic published by the SCCA, only 8% of all annulment requests have been accepted by Saudi courts. 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.
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