Tribunals in cases falling within the jurisdiction of the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution ("BCDR") under section one of chapter II of Legislative Decree No. 30 of 2009 ("Section One" or "BCDR Court" cases) are composed of three members: two judges of the highest Bahraini jurisdictions and a third member chosen from the BCDR Court's roster of neutrals.
As previously reported, though all BCDR Court cases have so far been conducted in Arabic, these may also be conducted in English. Royal Order No. 3 of 2022 permits the appointment of Tribunal members specifically to hear BCDR Court cases in which the parties have agreed on English as the language of proceedings.
In an effort to further expand the BCDR roster for Section One cases, Resolution 134 of 2021 of the Minister of Justice, Islamic Affairs and Waqf established a selection committee tasked with reviewing applications and selecting roster members. The selection committee is headed by BCDR's CEO and further comprises two representatives of the Supreme Judicial Council, two representatives of the BCDR's Board of Trustees, one representative of each of the Minister of Justice, of the Central Bank, of the Economic Development Board, and of the Chamber of Commerce and Industry.
The selection committee will consider individuals practicing in the fields of commercial disputes (including telecommunication disputes); conventional banking, finance, investment, and insurance disputes; Islamic banking and finance disputes; and construction and real estate disputes.
Professionals who wish to be considered for the roster should submit their application electronically via the following link accompanied by all the required documents indicated by no later than 15 October 2022.