Dubai, a rising arbitration hub

New findings from the International Arbitration Survey underline arbitration's continued appeal in construction and highlight growing confidence in Dubai as a neutral, enforceable seat for cross-border disputes, says STUART JORDAN.

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THE latest International Arbitration Survey has just been published and the results are interesting for our industry, generally, and in the Gulf.

Construction and arbitration go together, for reasons we have discussed before: not least the need for specialist tribunals that understand construction esoterica; cross-border enforcement and confidentiality. Arbitration is, by some distance, the most popular means of resolving disputes in major projects. And, not surprisingly, construction is the largest single customer for many commercial arbitration centres globally.

The International Arbitration Survey is carried out by the School of International Arbitration at Queen Mary University of London, in partnership with White & Case. More than 2,400 users, lawyers, arbitrators, arbitral institutions and academics participated in it.

On the basic preferences for resolution of cross-border disputes, the headline is not a surprise: 87 per cent of respondents prefer arbitration. What is surprising is the reduction of respondents preferring arbitration in conjunction with ADR (Alternative Dispute Resolution) mechanisms such as Expert Determination or Dispute Boards. Preferences for that combination (as opposed to arbitration on its own) have dropped from 59 per cent to 48 per cent of respondents in just four years. That translates to a decline of almost 20 per cent. This is sobering for us advocates for ADR but this may not be the full picture for construction: the survey acknowledged construction as an area that has embraced ADR more firmly than others.