EGYPT Law and Practice Contributed by: Mohamed Osama, Hana Elbarbary and Hamza Shehata, Shehata & Partners
the New York Convention which Egypt ratified on 9 March 1959. After a judgment of the Egyptian Court of Cas- sation of 2005, the enforcement of both domes- tic and foreign arbitral awards follows the same procedural course. The Court of Cassation has considered that the enforcement mechanism of foreign awards should not be more onerous than the enforcement of domestic ones in view of Article VII of the New York Convention. In this regard, the enforcement of arbitral awards from the practical stance is as follows: • if the award is issued in a foreign language, then it is imperative that the award is accom- panied by a certified official translation; • the relevant award shall be notified to the los- ing party; • the relevant award shall then be deposited in the registry of the competent court; • the deposit of the award shall be done along with the certified translation of the award, a copy of the arbitration agreement, and a certi- fied translation of the arbitration agreement; • the deposit request is communicated to the International Arbitration Office of the Ministry of Justice. In order to approve the deposit of the relevant award, the International Arbitra- tion Office of the Ministry of Justice verifies that the award is well in conformity with pub- lic policy and morals and does not contradict any prior arbitral award; • if the deposit has been approved, then the requesting party shall proceed with request- ing the exequatur form by virtue of a petition submitted to the competent court; • the exequatur request is submitted along with a copy of the deposit receipt, the arbitration agreement, and its certified translation where needed; and
• after obtaining the exequatur, the request- ing party shall notify the losing party of the exequatur before the enforcement depart- ment of the losing party’s address. In that regard, the competent court depends on the type of the arbitral award. • If it is an international arbitration award, then the president of the Cairo Court of Appeal is competent to order the enforcement of the arbitral award. • If it is a national arbitration award, the presi- dent of the first instance court that principally has jurisdiction to treat the dispute would be competent. It should be further noted that the enforcement request cannot be submitted before the lapse of 90 days from the notification of the award to the losing party. 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform As at the time of writing, there are no new pro- posals for dispute resolution reform. The recent amendments to the Procedural Code have already been enacted, and no further changes are currently under discussion. 14.2 Growth Areas Response required.
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