EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Amr A. Abbas, Ahmed Abdel Hakeem, Khaled Abou El Wafa and Adham Ahmed Saied, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy
4.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Arbitral Awards In the absence of exceptional circumstances, the receipt of an exequatur pursuant to an arbitral award takes between eight and 12 months. The costs may vary depending on whether an official Arabic translation of the award is required. 4.6 Challenging Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Under the Arbitration Law, the arbitral award is final, is not subject to appeal, and enjoys the authority of res judicata. However, it may be subject to a nullification lawsuit, provided that sufficient grounds exist. Egyp - tian courts only have jurisdiction to decide on a nullity action against an arbitral award seated in Egypt. Thus, foreign arbitral awards seated outside Egypt are not subject to nullification lawsuits. As a rule, Egyptian courts are not authorised to review the merits of the relevant arbitral award. They are only permitted to review an award if it violates any of the aspects exhaustively listed under Article 53 of the Arbitration Law. From a procedural perspective, an annulment lawsuit should be filed before the competent court within 90 days of the date of receiving official notification of the arbitral award from the successful party (Article 54 of the Arbitration Law). Grounds for Annulment Article 53 (1) of the Arbitration Law sets out an exhaustive list of grounds for the annulment of arbi - tral awards. It stipulates that an arbitral award may be annulled only: • if there is no arbitration agreement, if it is void, voidable, or its duration has elapsed; • if either party to the arbitration agreement was at the time of the conclusion of the arbitration agree - ment fully or partially incapacitated according to the law governing its legal capacity; • if either party to the arbitration was unable to pre - sent its case as a result of not being given proper notice of the appointment of an arbitrator or of the
Additional Requirements for the Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards For foreign arbitral awards seated outside Egypt, the applicant must submit evidence concerning the sta - tus of any nullification action in the country where the award was rendered. If the court finds that a nullifica - tion action was filed, in practice, the court would delay enforcement procedures until a judgment in the set- aside action is rendered. This practice is particularly common when handling requests to enforce foreign arbitral awards because it is carried out through an order issued in response to a petition, which does not require the attendance or contribution of a defence from the counterparty against whom enforcement is sought. For the enforcement of ICSID awards, and pursuant to Article 54 (20) of the ICSID Convention, the Ministry of Justice has been designated by Egypt as the compe - tent authority for the recognition and enforcement of arbitral awards rendered pursuant to the ICSID Con - vention. In a recent enforcement dispute before the court of appeal, the court had to determine whether the re- litigation of an already-decided arbitration dispute by the winning party constituted a waiver of the right to enforce the original arbitral award. The respond - ent had obtained an enforcement order for an award issued in 2006 in its favour (“Award A”). The appel - lant challenged Award A and sought its annulment. Before the court could rule on the validity of Award A, the respondent submitted the same claims from Award A to a different arbitration, where the tribunal dismissed these claims on the merits (“Award B”). Thus, the court of appeal faced the issue of conflict - ing awards and whether the re-litigation of matters in Award A could be considered a waiver of Award A and its effects. After examining these issues, the court concluded that the respondent’s re-litigation of matters in Award B that were previously addressed in Award A constituted a waiver of those matters as set - tled by Award A. This re-litigation could therefore lead to legal instability and uncertainty. Consequently, the court accepted the petition and annulled the enforce - ment order for Award A.
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