Egypt: Recent Developments in Arbitration Law

There are ongoing arbitration-related developments and updates that are worthy of mentioning in Egypt. In 2022, Egypt has adopted a recent model BIT , wherein it included provisions related to third-party funding and has significantly amended the dispute resolution mechanism of the preceding BIT models, and reintroduced the reference to ICSID arbitration under more stringent conditions. Also, by mid-2023, the CRCICA revealed its new draft arbitration rules which introduced new provisions that are not included in the 2011 arbitration rules such as consolidation, multiparty and multiple contracts arbitrations, third-party funding, emergency arbitrator and expedited procedures. On the judicial level, there are significant decisions rendered by the Cairo Court of Appeal and the Court of Cassation addressing various issues including the following: (i) the allocation of costs is based on a legal provision and does not amount to a compensation for special damages; (ii) supplementary compensation can be awarded in the form of an interest at a set rate provided that it fulfills the legally prescribed conditions; (iii) the nationality of the arbitrator is not a fundamental requirement to be included in the award, as long as it can be revealed from the case file and unless the parties excluded a specific nationality; (iv) a judge is disqualified to hear a petition filed to reverse his/her own order refusing enforcement of an arbitral award (v) a party who does not challenge an arbitrator, who failed to disclose that he was sentenced a one-year prison for a charge involving moral turpitude, within the timeframe for challenging him/her, is considered having waived its right to object and consequently such undisclosed circumstance will not affect the validity of the award; and (vi) the interest rate set by the Central Bank of Egypt is applied to commercial loans between non-banking commercial parties and does not violate the principles of Islamic Shari’a.