Resolving Real Estate Disputes Through Commercial Arbitration (1)

Dr. Fahd Muhammad Al-Rifai*

Arbitration is the language of the modern era, even though it is a system that has existed since ancient times. As a result of the rapid development of commercial and economic life in local and international forums, financial transactions and commercial relationships have become fast-paced, whether involving natural or legal persons, government sectors, or companies.

Given the desire of all parties to these financial transactions for them to be legally enforceable and protected—and not to be disrupted, frozen, or left idle without benefit due to delays in the resolution of disputes and disagreements by the state judiciary.

The proliferation of rapid cross-border trade and the speed at which it occurs have led to the need for a specialized judicial system that adjudicates disputes with the necessary speed and accuracy, while maintaining the required confidentiality and ensuring effective enforcement of judgments once they are issued, arbitration has emerged at the international and Arab levels because it is initiated by the parties to the dispute and concludes with a binding and final award without any delay in its enforcement.

Arbitration is the swift justice sought by the parties to a dispute to assert and protect their rights.

Arab states have adopted arbitration in response to the rapid development of international trade; consequently, they have embraced arbitration to keep pace with this rapid growth in commercial exchange and have enacted laws establishing a special judicial system—arbitration—that runs parallel to the

Arbitration is the ideal solution and safe haven relied upon by investors in the era of the Industrial Revolution, due to the advantages of the arbitration system, which include the parties’ freedom to choose the applicable law or to subject their legal relationship to the provisions of an international convention or a model contract, in addition to the speed of arbitration proceedings. Arbitration has thus become an effective and swift means of resolving disputes that arise between adversaries, given that the arbitrators’ rulings and decisions are grounded in justice and freedom of opinion.

Arbitration has evolved into international organizations, bodies, and centers, and has grown during this period due to the boom in trade between nations and their citizens, the proliferation of investment contracts, the free movement of people and capital, technology transfer agreements, and insurance, and banking relationships.

In this section, we will focus on the settlement of real estate disputes through arbitration, highlighting the importance of arbitration and outlining its characteristics, advantages, and types, while clarifying the difference between commercial arbitration and the courts.

Deputy Secretary-General of the Arab Union for International Commercial Arbitration