SAUDI ARABIA Law and Practice Contributed by: Omar Alrasheed, Ghaleb Alqahtany, Muaath Al-Marashi and Hussam Al-Ghamdi, Omar Alrasheed Law Firm
4.4 Process of Enforcing Arbitral Awards After the arbitral award has been issued, an enforce - ment request can be filed with the appellate court. The request to enforce the arbitral award must include the following: • the original copy or an attested copy of the award; • a true copy of the arbitration agreement; • an Arabic translation if the arbitral award’s lan - guage is not Arabic; and • proof indicating the deposit of the arbitral award with the appellate court. Upon issuing the order for the enforcement of the arbi - tral award, the arbitral award is considered enforce - able and becomes an enforcement document, as des - ignated in the Enforcement Law (Article 9). The later enforcement process carried out by the enforcement court to enforce the arbitral award is explained in 3.4 Process of Enforcing Foreign Judg- ments . 4.5 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Arbitral Awards In addition to the costs and time taken with respect to enforcing a domestic judgment, as described in 2.3 Costs and Time Taken to Enforce Domestic Judg- ments , there are other costs related to enforcing an arbitral award, which include: • arbitrators’ fees; • fees incurred during the arbitration proceedings; and • in the case of filing a petition to nullify the arbitral award before the appellate court, a 1% judicial fee of the amount awarded will be imposed upon the plaintiff, with a maximum of SAR1 million, if the petition is dismissed. 4.6 Challenging Enforcement of Arbitral Awards Enforcement of an arbitral award can be challenged relying on several aspects that may include: • the arbitral award sought to be enforced does not have the enforcement formula;
• Domestic arbitral awards: Domestic arbitral awards are recognised per se. Therefore, enforce - ment proceedings will not extend to cover the elements concerning public order, ie, whether the arbitral award was issued in a member forum, based on a treaty, convention or bilateral interna - tional agreement, and whether the element of reci - procity has been met and verified by the enforce - ment court. • Foreign arbitral awards: The approach to enforc - ing a foreign arbitral award differs due to its nature, which requires it to be recognised first. As explained in ‘Domestic arbitral awards’ above, a foreign arbitral award needs to be recognised first by verifying that it meets the reciprocity element/ was issued in a member forum, and that the judg - ment rendered therein does not conflict with the Kingdom’s public order. 4.3 Categories of Arbitral Awards Not Enforced Arbitral awards will not be enforced, either in part or in full, if: • the arbitral award’s documents lack the enforce - ment formula; • the deadline for filing a nullification action has not elapsed; • a case has been filed to nullify the arbitration award, and the court has granted the plaintiff’s request to stay the enforcement of the arbitral award; • the arbitral award conflicts with a judgment or decision issued by a Saudi court or committee that has jurisdiction to decide the dispute in the King - dom; • the arbitral award violates the Kingdom’s pub - lic order (Sharia provisions) – if an arbitral award violates Sharia provisions in part, the remaining part that does not violate Sharia provisions can be enforced; • the party against whom the arbitral award was ren - dered has not been properly notified; and • the reciprocity element has not been met with respect to foreign arbitral awards.
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