Al-Jarida Publishes Draft Arbitration Law... Dispute Resolution Within 12 Months and Introduction of Digital Arbitration System

The new arbitration bill, the draft of which has been published in the Official Gazette, comprises 108 articles distributed across 15 chapters.

According to its explanatory memorandum, the draft represents a qualitative leap by merging the judicial and contractual arbitration systems into a single, independent, and comprehensive legislation.

The explanatory memorandum of the bill stated that the new legislation addresses the fragmentation and dispersion of arbitration provisions between the Code of Civil Procedure and the 1995 Law on Judicial Arbitration, which resulted in conflicts of jurisdiction and inconsistencies in terminology and timeframes. It aims to close this chapter by unifying the legislative reference into one comprehensive law that encompasses both types of arbitration (contractual and judicial), while drawing on best international practices and preserving the specificity of the Kuwaiti legal system and its higher interests.

The memorandum clarified that the legislative framework was based on sound foundations, including referring state-related matters to the president of the competent court within the shortest possible timeframes, establishing a precise system for interim and conservatory measures, restricting judicial review of arbitral awards exclusively to the Court of Appeal through a single annulment action to be resolved within a specified period, subjecting arbitration centers to licensing and oversight by the Ministry of Justice, and providing criminal protection for the arbitration framework to ensure the delivery of final justice and support the investment environment.