LEBANON Law and Practice Contributed by: Nayla Comair-Obeid, Ziad Obeid and Zeina Obeid, Obeid & Partners
of Appeal’s decision is subject to cassation before the Court of Cassation. The Court of Cassation’s review will be limited to legal grounds only. • Appeal against the decision granting exequa- tur –this appeal is only available in specific circumstances set out in Article 817 of the LCCP, as outlined above. No annulment proceedings are available against awards rendered overseas. 13.4 Procedure for Enforcing Domestic and Foreign Arbitration The recognition and enforcement of an award in Lebanon is made through an ex parte exequatur proceeding. The competent courts to grant exequatur depends on the nature of dispute (ie, whether it is a civil or administrative dispute). In civil and commercial matters, exequatur requests are filed before the President of the Court of First Instance, either at the place where the award was rendered, if an award was rendered in Lebanon, or in Beirut if the award was rendered outside Lebanon. In administrative matters, exequatur requests should be filed before the President of the State Council (Articles 793, 795 and 815 of the LCCP). For either domestic, international or foreign awards, the exequatur application must be accompanied with the following documentation (i) the arbitral award and (ii) the arbitration agree- ment or a certified copy of these documents (Articles 793, 814 and 815 of the LCCP). If the award and/or arbitration agreement are in a for- eign language, a certified Arabic translation, or made by a sworn translator is required.
For international or foreign awards, the award should be translated into Arabic and judges will verify (i) the existence of the award and (ii) that recognition of the award does not manifestly vio- late Lebanese international public policy (Arti- cles 814 and 815 of the LCCP). Pursuant to Article 796 of the LCCP, exequatur is placed on the award deposited. Any decision rejecting the exequatur must provide specific reasons for doing so. Once the exequatur is granted, the procedure for enforcement typically mirrors that used for enforcing court decisions – the competent Enforcement Bureau will carry out the execu- tion of the award in accordance with the provi- sions of the LCCP governing enforcement. This includes pursuing the award debtor’s movable and immovable assets. With regards to the means of recourse, refer to 13.3 Circumstances to Challenge an Arbitral Award . 14. Outlook 14.1 Proposals for Dispute Resolution Reform In Lebanon, there are no new acts or pieces of legislation on or involving dispute resolution expected in the forthcoming year. However, it is worth noting that there are discus- sions to reform the arbitration law in the near future, but these have not yet materialised. 14.2 Growth Areas In the coming years, the most probable area of growth in commercial disputes will likely centre
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