Law No. 11 of 1995 on Judicial Arbitration in Civil and Commercial Matters

Law No. 11 of 1995
on Judicial Arbitration in Civil and Commercial Matters

Article 1

One or more Arbitration Panels shall be formed at the seat of the Court of Appeal, each composed of three members of the judiciary and two arbitrators. Each of the parties to the dispute – even if they are several – shall choose one of the two arbitrators from among the arbitrators registered in the rolls prepared for that purpose at the Arbitration Department of the Court of Appeal, or from others. If either party to the arbitration fails to do so within the ten days following the Arbitration Department’s request to it to choose its arbitrator, the said Department shall appoint, as a member of the Panel, the arbitrator whose turn it is on the roll of arbitrators specialised in the subject matter of the dispute. The Panel shall be presided over by the most senior of its members from the judiciary, provided that he holds the rank of Counsellor.
The secretariat of the Panel shall be undertaken by an employee of the Court of Appeal, and the Panel shall hold its sessions at the seat of the Court of Appeal or at any other place designated by the President of the Panel.
The arbitrators who are members of the judiciary shall be appointed by a resolution of the Supreme Judicial Council for a period of two years from the date of its issuance.

Article 2

The Arbitration Panel shall have jurisdiction over the following matters:
1 – Deciding the disputes that the parties concerned agree to submit to it.
It shall also have jurisdiction to decide the disputes arising from contracts concluded after this Law comes into force that provide for the settlement of such disputes by arbitration, unless the contract or a special arbitration regulation provides otherwise.
2 – Deciding, to the exclusion of any other body, the disputes that arise between the ministries, government entities or public juristic persons, on the one hand, and the companies whose capital is wholly owned by the State, on the other, or among such companies.
3 – Deciding the requests for arbitration submitted by individuals or private juristic persons against the ministries, government entities or public juristic persons in the disputes that arise between them. These entities shall be bound to arbitrate unless the dispute has already been brought before the courts.
The jurisdiction of the Arbitration Panel set out in Clauses (2, 3) shall be limited to requests whose value does not exceed KD 500,000 (five hundred thousand Kuwaiti Dinars), including those relating to financial disputes arising from administrative contracts.*
The Panel shall hear the disputes submitted to it free of fees.
* The paragraph following Clause 3 was added by Article 1 of Law No. 102 of 2013 (Kuwait Al-Youm, Issue No. 1128, 21 April 2013). Article 2 of that Law provides that “the Arbitration Panel shall refer the requests for arbitration pending before it that fall outside its jurisdiction under this Law, in their current state, to the court competent to hear them in accordance with the provisions of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law”.

Article 3

The request for arbitration shall be submitted to the Arbitration Department, and that Department shall enter it in the special register on the day it is submitted.
Within the three days following the choice of the remaining arbitrators, the request shall be submitted to the President of the Arbitration Panel to assess the amount that each party to the arbitration shall deposit on account of the fees of its arbitrator, in the absence of a prior notification from the arbitrator that such fees have been settled. The Arbitration Department shall request each party to the arbitration to deposit the amount it is required to deposit with the treasury of the Arbitration Department within the ten days following. If a party fails to do so within the said time limit, the Arbitration Department shall notify the other party thereof within the five days following, and the other party may – if it wishes to continue the arbitration proceedings – deposit the required amount within the ten days following. If that time limit expires without the amount being deposited by any of the litigants, the Arbitration Department shall submit the request for arbitration to the President of the Arbitration Panel to order that it be shelved, and any amounts that any of the litigants may have deposited on account of the fees of its arbitrator shall be returned to it.

Article 4

Within the three days following the deposit of the amount allocated for the fees of the chosen arbitrators, the Arbitration Department shall submit the request for arbitration to the President of the Arbitration Panel to fix a session for hearing it. The Department shall notify both parties of that session and of the full composition of the Panel within the five days following, and shall fix a date for them to submit their documents, memoranda and defences. Notification shall be made in accordance with Article (179) of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law, unless the parties to the dispute agree otherwise.

Article 5

The Arbitration Panel shall decide the preliminary questions that arise in the dispute and that fall within the jurisdiction of the civil or commercial courts, and the pleas relating to its lack of jurisdiction, including those based on the non-existence, lapse or invalidity of the arbitration agreement or on its not covering the subject matter of the dispute. Such pleas shall be raised before any defence on the merits, and the plea that the arbitration agreement does not cover the claims made by the other party during the hearing of the dispute shall be raised as soon as those claims are made, failing which the right to raise it shall lapse.
In all cases, the Arbitration Panel may accept a late plea if it considers that the delay in raising it was justified.
The Arbitration Panel shall decide the pleas referred to before deciding the merits, or join them to the merits so that both are decided together.
It may also issue the judgments and orders referred to in Paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of Article (180) of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law.
The Arbitration Panel shall also decide urgent matters relating to the subject matter of the dispute, unless the two parties expressly agree otherwise.

Article 6

The Court of Cassation shall have jurisdiction to decide a request to challenge any of the members of the Arbitration Panel. The request for challenge shall be submitted by a report filed with the Clerks’ Office of the Court of Cassation within five days from the date on which the party requesting the challenge is notified of the composition of the Arbitration Panel, or from the date on which the ground for challenge arises, or from the date on which he becomes aware of it if that is later.
The submission of a request for challenge shall not stay the arbitration proceedings. If the challenge is upheld, the arbitration proceedings that have taken place, including the award of the Arbitration Panel, shall be deemed never to have taken place. The judgment dismissing the request for challenge may not be appealed by any means of appeal.
If a judgment is issued upholding the challenge of any of the arbitrators, or if he withdraws or is removed for any reason, his replacement shall be appointed by the same procedures followed in his appointment.

Article 7

The award of the Arbitration Panel shall be issued without being bound by a specific time limit, by way of exception to Article (181) of the Civil Procedure Law.
The award of the Arbitration Panel shall be issued by a majority of votes and shall be pronounced in a public session of which both parties to the arbitration are notified. It shall in particular include a summary of the arbitration agreement, a summary of the statements and documents of the litigants, the reasons for the award, its operative part, the date and place of its issuance, and the signatures of the arbitrators. The draft of the award containing those reasons, signed by the arbitrators, shall be filed upon its pronouncement. If one or more of the arbitrators refuses to sign the award, this shall be stated in it, and the award shall be valid if signed by a majority of the arbitrators, even if one or more of them has stepped down or withdrawn after the case was reserved for judgment and deliberation had begun.
The original of the award terminating the dispute, together with the original of the arbitration agreement, shall be filed with the Clerks’ Office of the Court of Appeal within the five days following its issuance.
The award of the Arbitration Panel, or any part of it, may not be published except with the consent of both parties.

Article 8

The Arbitration Panel shall have jurisdiction to correct purely material errors, whether clerical or arithmetical, that occur in its award, and to interpret the award if its operative part is ambiguous or unclear. It shall also have jurisdiction to decide the substantive claims it omitted to decide. This shall be done in accordance with the rules set out in Articles (124), (125) and (126) of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law. If this is not possible, these matters shall fall within the jurisdiction of the court originally competent to hear the dispute.
If the award is appealed in cassation, the Court of Cassation alone shall have jurisdiction to correct any material errors that may have occurred in it or to interpret it.

Article 9

The awards issued by the Arbitration Panel shall have the force of res judicata and shall be enforceable in accordance with the procedures prescribed in the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law after the executory formula is affixed to the award by the Clerks’ Office of the Court of Appeal.

Article 10

The award issued by the Arbitration Panel may be appealed in cassation in the following cases:
(a) Violation of the law, or error in its application or interpretation.
(b) If the award is null, or if a nullity occurred in the proceedings that affected the award.
(c) If the Arbitration Panel has ruled contrary to a previous judgment between the same litigants that has acquired the authority of res judicata, whether issued by the ordinary courts or by an arbitration panel.
(d) If any of the grounds for which a petition for reconsideration may be filed is present.
The award issued by the Arbitration Panel may not be challenged by any other means of appeal.

Article 11

Subject to Article (130) of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law, the appeal shall be filed with the Court of Cassation in accordance with the procedures prescribed therefor in that Law, within thirty days from the date of issuance of the award of the Arbitration Panel in the cases set out in Paragraphs (a), (b) and (c) of the preceding Article. In the cases in which any of the grounds set out in Paragraph (d) of that Article is present, this time limit shall begin in accordance with Article (149) of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law.
The appellant shall, upon filing the appeal, deposit one hundred dinars as security.
The appeal in cassation shall be registered, heard and decided in accordance with the procedures prescribed for appeals in cassation in the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law.

Article 12

The provisions of this Law shall apply to the Arbitration Panels provided for herein, and the provisions of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law shall also apply to them insofar as they do not conflict with the provisions of this Law.
Article (177) of the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law is hereby repealed.

Article 13

The Minister of Justice shall issue the resolutions necessary for the implementation of this Law, provided that they include the provisions on the organisation of the Arbitration Department at the Court of Appeal, the organisation of registration in the rolls of arbitrators, and the procedures for their selection, replacement and the assessment of their fees.

Article 14

This Law shall be published in the Official Gazette and shall come into force one month after the date of its publication. The Ministers – each within his own competence – shall implement this Law.

Issued on 19 February 1995 and published in the Official Gazette Kuwait Al-Youm on 28 February 1995.