Dr. Qais Khaleel Sallam Maaitah
Assistant Professor of commercial law
Applied Sciences University – Bahrain

Abstract:

Arbitration is now considered to be an effective form of alternative dispute resolution under international law. The GCC countries have several mechanisms in order to provide arbitration as a means of resolving commercial disputes. However, only Bahrain has made efforts to bring its arbitration regime in accordance with the UNITRAL Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. Law 9/2015 is the most recent legislation that will significantly improve the arbitration regime in Bahrain.
This paper aims to analyze and assess arbitration law 9/2015 implemented in Bahrain in 2015, in order to check its efficacy as well as identify the areas where improvement is needed in order to make arbitration more effective in the country. The best practices related to international arbitration practice need to be implemented in Bahrain in order to achieve the highest levels of success. An exploratory qualitative study has been undertaken to study the law by referring to research resources on arbitration and international legal frameworks.
The findings from the paper suggest that the new law will be beneficial as foreign investors are protected as they can refer to the law by hiring legal representatives that do not have license or registration to operate in Bahrain for international commercial arbitrations.
Consequently, the benefits are that preferred legal counsel of foreign investors can participate in such proceedings. Another benefit of the new law is that arbitrators will be immune from liability which happens due to actions and decisions taken during the arbitral proceedings.

Keywords: arbitration regime, commercial disputes, commercial arbitration, dispute resolution, UNCITRAL Model Law.

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