KINGDOM OF SAUDI ARABIA
Abdulrahman Al Ajlan and Anton Mikel
A. LEGISLATION AND RULES
A.1 Legislation
International arbitration in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia continues to be governed by the arbitration law issued by Royal Decree No. 34/M, dated 24/5/1433H (corresponding to 16 April 2012G), which replaced the arbitration law issued by Royal Decree No. 46/M, dated 12/7/1403H, to which no notable amendments have been made since.
A.2 Institutions, rules and infrastructure
The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) continues to be the leading domestic and international commercial arbitration center in the Kingdom. On 16 August 2020, the SCCA opened a new branch at King Salman Energy Park, located in Al Khobar (Eastern Province). This new branch is an addition to SCCA’s headquarters in Riyadh, its branch in Jeddah, and a representative office in King Abdullah Economic City.
B. CASES
We are not aware of any new notable arbitration cases to report in the Kingdom. Saudi courts and other adjudicatory authorities do not, in general, report their decisions, and previous decisions of the courts and other adjudicatory authorities of Saudi Arabia are not considered to establish a binding precedent for the decision of later cases. Due to the fact that arbitral awards are not made public, it is difficult to obtain information about new arbitrations.
