BCDR holds English-language workshop for judges on international arbitration and national courts

Between 1 and 14 July 2021, the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (“BCDR”), in collaboration with the Supreme Judicial Council of the Kingdom of Bahrain (“the Council”), held a remote English-language workshop for Bahrain’s commercial court judges.

The workshop was prepared and presented by Professor Nassib G. Ziadé, Chief Executive Officer of BCDR, with the objective of highlighting the complementary relationship between the remits of ad hoc and institutional commercial arbitration on the one hand, and of national courts on the other.

The workshop included in-depth dialogue with the participating judges on the legal and procedural concepts common to both arbitration and court proceedings. These were illustrated by the presentation and analysis of important international arbitration cases and court judgments that have influenced and enriched the practice and procedure of international arbitration at the national and international levels. The workshop examined how national courts have viewed those cases and judgments, and the international commercial arbitration precedents and legal concepts and rules raised by them.

This workshop was part of the continuing cooperation between BCDR and the Council, as the Council works to develop judicial skills in the adjudication of English-language arbitration cases in order to promote commercial arbitration as an alternative means of dispute resolution, and to strengthen its role in attracting investments in light of the requirements of the Economic Vision 2030 of Bahrain.

Professor Ziadé stressed the importance of the cooperation of BCDR with the Council and the judiciary in the area of commercial arbitration in the Kingdom of Bahrain. The Vice-President of the Council and President of the Court of Cassation, Judge Abdullah bin Hasan Albuainain, confirmed the Council’s continued interest in such specialized training programs with the aim of enhancing the efficiency of the judicial system in Bahrain.

Judge Albuainain also congratulated BCDR for having won the Global Arbitration Review (GAR) 2021 award for the Regional Arbitration institution that Impressed, in recognition of BCDR’s achievements and standing.

BCDR had previously collaborated with the Council on  the International Council of Commercial Arbitration (ICCA) dialogue on the New York Convention, which was attended by fifty-one judges from Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Libya, Lebanon, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Saudi Arabia and Yemen, and which concluded with recommendations of those judges on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards.