In Brief
In a judgment issued this week, the Dubai Court of Cassation (the “Court”) issued a precedent-setting judgment on the survival of arbitration clauses following contract termination versus supersession by a subsequent contract including a “choice-of-court clause”.
Additionally, the Court established an important precedent concerning the legal effect of a judgment appointing an arbitrator, and its interplay with the principle of kompetenz-kompetenz – the principle that the arbitral tribunal has the authority to determine its own jurisdiction.
Key Takeaways
The Court’s judgment clarified a number of important principles:
• Prima facie authority courts in the pre-arbitration stage: When considering an application for the appointment of an arbitrator, the curial court undertakes prima facie review of the arbitration clause. This means the court’s role is limited to appointing the arbitrator based on the apparent validity of the arbitration agreement, without delving into any substantive arguments related to the validity of the arbitration agreement.
• Independence of the arbitral tribunal: Once the arbitrator is appointed, the arbitral tribunal retains full capacity to determine its own jurisdiction over the dispute, in accordance with the principle of kompetenz-kompetenz.
• Preclusion of court intervention: The court is precluded from addressing issues of jurisdiction before the tribunal itself has ruled on the matter first.
Our Role
Our arbitration and litigation teams successfully represented our Client in both the arbitration proceedings and the subsequent litigation before the Dubai Courts: This outcome underscores our firm’s extensive experience in handling complex arbitrations in a forward – looking manner, with the goal of ensuring the validity and enforceability of the arbitration award before UAE courts.