Commentary by Khaled Elgarhe, Chief Legal Counsel, Qatar International Center for Conciliation and Arbitration (QICCA)

In a decision rendered in annulment proceedings, the Court stressed that the grounds for setting aside arbitral awards, set out in Art. 53 of the Egyptian Arbitration Law, closely reflect the grounds for refusing enforcement listed in the New York Convention. The Court also set out several important principles applicable to arbitration in Egypt, such as that the current Arbitration Law allows parties to represent themselves in arbitration proceedings, or to be represented by non-lawyers – which includes foreign counsel, who are not members of the Egyptian Bar and therefore are not considered lawyers; that the rules concerning party representation before an arbitral tribunal do not relate to public policy; and that the seat of arbitration is an abstraction, independent of the actual venue of the hearings, which can be agreed to be held elsewhere.