In the second half of the twentieth century, alongside the evolution of the global economy, modern technology, rapid transportation and multinational enterprises, there was an increased demand for a dispute resolution mechanism that met the needs of traders, international trade and economic policy-makers. Arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution has significantly gained in popularity in the Arab Gulf States over the past two decades or so. This is no doubt reason enough to take a closer look at the main theme that defines arbitration in this region. National courts of the Arab Gulf states are invariably seen as not very arbitration friendly, some possibly even hostile to arbitration. Public order, alongside the Islamic legal traditions, is seen as unruly horse that could possibly undermine the development of international commercial arbitration in this region. The contribution in this book will go some way toward dissipating the concerns that are routinely raised about the procedural and practical soundness of arbitration in the Arab Gulf states. In addition, the book serves to place arbitration in the Arab Gulf states in its present legal systems, national laws and courts practices.

The 1958 New York Convention has been called the most effective instance of international legislation in the entire history of commercial law. However, the succinct text of the Convention leaves open a host of significant and complex questions, which may be, and have been, answered in a variety of ways; as difficult cases arise and demand solutions, they generate inconsistent outcomes. For all its remarkable success, the Convention has on occasion proved itself to be unreliable and unpredictable. This book simultaneously exposes the difficulties of the Convention and explores potential solutions. It examines each substantive article of the New York Convention in accordance with the following outline: • the text and its issues; • original intent; • the prism of the rules of interpretation of the Vienna Convention; • judicial outcomes; and • appraisal. By drawing on the Convention's drafting history in great detail, the book presents a coherent account of how the most frequently recurring interrogations about the text are reflected (or not) in judicial practice. The author studied more than 1,700 decisions rendered under the Convention since its inception in 1958 in order to provide a succinct selection of landmark cases per article. With its intense investigation of the complex reality underlying contracting States' commitment in principle and judicial application in fact, the author's judicial understanding of the Convention provides a clear conceptual framework that will help avoid outcomes at odds with the purposes of this important instrument. Lawyers and judges will rely on this book not only to situate the Convention in the national legal orders where it is intended to produce its effects, but also discover practical ways to respond to distinct questions of application.

The Guide on the New York Convention provides an insight on the application of the Convention by State courts.