EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Amr A Abbas, Ahmed Abdel Hakeem, Khaled Abou El Wafa and Adham Ahmed Saied, Matouk Bassiouny & Hennawy
The court can only order enforcement of the award after verifying the following: • that the arbitral award does not contradict a judg - ment previously rendered by an Egyptian court on the subject matter in dispute; • that the arbitral award does not violate the public policy provisions of Egyptian law; and • that the arbitral award was properly notified to the party against which it was rendered. After 90 days have passed, the applicant will be enti - tled to seek official execution of the arbitral award (ie, requesting the issuance of an execution order, or “exequatur”), regardless of whether or not an annul - ment lawsuit is filed. Following the fulfilment of the above conditions and procedures, the competent court will issue its execution order (ie, exequatur) on the arbitral award. 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 arbitration 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 settled by Award A. This re-litigation would otherwise lead to legal instability and uncertainty. Consequent - ly, the court accepted the petition and annulled the enforcement order for Award A. 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 transla - tion 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
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