SCCA Saudi Case Law Study: Three Years in Review

In 2021, driven by the interest in understanding the arbitration ecosystem in Saudi Arabia and promoting Riyadh as an arbitral seat, the Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) collaborated with the Saudi Ministry of Justice (MOJ) in soliciting over 1400 judgments of courts of appeal, as well as certain Supreme Court judgments, issued between 2017 and 2022 relating to motions in aid of arbitration proceedings and motions to enforce or annul arbitral awards. It was particularly important for SCCA to attach empirical data to the enforceability (or not) of arbitral awards in Saudi Arabia. This article outlines SCCA’s statistical findings based on the culmination of three years of case law review and summarizes certain interesting decisions that arose in the review process. Indeed, the case law study revealed results far beyond SCCA’s expectations, demonstrating a consistent record of an enforcement rate exceeding 92% in every batch of reviewed judgments. The case law study also revealed the courts’ deference to arbitration and an unwillingness to assert jurisdiction in those cases.