By: Reeda Halawi – Associate
Abdulrahman Mohamed – Paralegal
It is well-known that the primary rule for enforcing both local and foreign arbitration awards in the State of Qatar is the ability to file a request for execution before the competent court after the expiration of the appeal period or the issuance of a ruling on the appeal, based on the provisions of Law No. 2 of 2017, issuing the Arbitration Law in Civil and Commercial Matters (“Arbitration Law”). However, the law also provided in the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law (Law No. 13 of 1990)(“CCPL”), a separate law, guidelines for enforcing official documents, including local and foreign awards. This led to a practical duplication in the procedures that courts could follow for enforcing arbitration awards in general, especially foreign ones.
With the recent issuance of the Judicial Enforcement Law (Law No. 4 of 2024), which abolished the third book of the aforementioned CCPL, the issue of enforcing arbitral awards is now organized in one law. The following outlines the procedures to be followed before Qatari courts to enforce arbitral awards, based on the provisions of the new Judicial Enforcement Law.
Articles 17 to 20 of the Judicial Enforcement Law address the conditions that must be met and the procedures to be followed for submitting and accepting requests for the enforcement of arbitral awards before the Qatari Enforcement Court, in accordance with Articles 33, 34, and 35 of the Arbitration Law.
The period for filing a nullity action against the arbitral award is thirty days from the date of delivering a copy of the award to the parties or from the date of notifying the applicant of the award or the issuance of a correction decision or an interpretation or additional arbitration award, if any. According to Article 17, this period must have expired prior to seeking enforcement. This is in line with Article 33, Paragraph 4 of the Arbitration Law. It follows that the Enforcement Court must reject a request for the enforcement of an arbitral award submitted by a person with standing if it is submitted before the expiration of this period. Thus, this condition is essential for accepting requests for the enforcement of arbitration awards before the Enforcement Court.
Regarding the conditions for accepting a request for the enforcement of an arbitral award, Article 34, Paragraph 2 of the Arbitration Law requires that the request be submitted in writing to the competent judge, accompanied by a copy of the arbitration agreement, and the original or a signed copy of the award in the language it was issued. If the arbitral award is issued in a foreign language, in addition to the aforementioned requirements, a certified translation of the award into Arabic must be attached. Article 19 of the Judicial Enforcement Law also stipulates a final condition that the arbitral award must be issued on a matter that can be arbitrated.
As for the procedures to be followed for enforcing arbitral awards before the Enforcement Court, Article 18 of the Judicial Enforcement Law provides that, in principle, the enforcement of arbitral awards cannot be refused regardless of the state in which they were issued, in accordance with Article 35 of the Arbitration Law, which states that recognition or enforcement of any arbitration award can only be refused in two specific cases.
The first case is upon the request of the party against whom enforcement is sought, if this party provides the competent judge with evidence proving one of the following defects: (1) one of the parties to the arbitration agreement at the time of its conclusion was lacking legal capacity or had reduced capacity according to the law governing their capacity, or the arbitration agreement was invalid; or (2) the party against whom enforcement is sought was not properly notified of the appointment of an arbitrator or the arbitration procedures, or was unable to present their defense for reasons beyond their control; or (3) the arbitral award dealt with matters not covered by the arbitration agreement, or exceeded the limits of this agreement; or (4) the composition of the arbitral tribunal or the appointment of arbitrators or any arbitration procedure was in violation of the law or the parties’ agreement; or (5) the arbitral award is no longer binding on the parties or has been annulled or its enforcement suspended by one of the courts of the state where the award was issued or under its law.
The second case is at the discretion of the competent judge, if the subject of the dispute is not arbitrable under Qatari law, or if recognising or enforcing the award contradicts the public order of the State of Qatar. Furthermore, Article 18 of the Judicial Enforcement Law confirmed the two exceptions mentioned in paragraphs one and two of Article 35 of the Arbitration Law, as cases where the Enforcement Court may refuse to enforce the arbitration award.
Since the issue of appeal was not addressed in the CCPL, the new law in Article 20 allows for the appeal against an order refusing the enforcement of an arbitration award. The competent judge can reject the enforcement of an arbitration award if one of the conditions stipulated in Article 35 of the Arbitration Law is met, and provides the concerned party with the opportunity to appeal the order refusing enforcement within thirty days from the date of issuance of the rejection order.
In conclusion, the Judicial Enforcement Law, has comprehensively addressed all matters related to the enforcement of arbitration awards in the State of Qatar, specifying more clearly (compared to the provisions of the repealed CCPL) the conditions required for arbitration awards to be enforceable in Qatar and the procedures to be followed before the Enforcement Court.
