Most Arab legislative systems acknowledge the legitimacy of international commercial arbitration. Most Arab countries have joined the New York Convention (e.g., Qatar, Egypt, Lebanon, Kuwait, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Syria, UAE and Oman).

In addition, some Middle Eastern Arab countries have adopted the UNCITRAL Model Law as part of their national legislation and have enacted legislation to incorporate international commercial arbitration according to this model (e.g., Bahrain, Legislative Decree No 9 of 1994 with Respect to the International Commercial Arbitration Law; Sultanate of Oman, Sultani Decree No 47/97; Egypt has adopted it as part of arbitration law provisions: Law No 27/1994; and Jordan has its Arbitration Law).

In fact the scope of some of these laws has expanded the umbrella of international commercial arbitration, as in the case of the provision contained in the Egyptian Law, where it states as follows: “Arbitration shall be deemed international, in this law, if its subject-matter is a dispute related to international trade.” The Omani law, as well as the Egyptian Law, provides for a wide umbrella of international commercial arbitration law, by stating as follows: “The provisions of this Law shall apply to every arbitration between the parties who are persons of the public law or private law, regardless of the nature of the legal relationship.”

The legislature in most Arab countries is moving towards enacting legislation to give prevalence to international commercial arbitration in disputes of an international nature. This is a move in a positive direction that will help bring the Arab countries into compliance with modern international conventions and practices in commercial trade.

However, as a matter of fact, despite enacting progressive legislation, as in the examples mentioned above, there exist some obstacles and hindrances in practice which run counter to this trend and also restrict the march of the international commercial arbitration movement in these countries. These obstacles and hindrances may be classified as follows: