Bahrain launches dispute resolution centre

The centre can hear cases under other countries' jurisdisctions

Bahrain has launched a new centre for international dispute resolution which experts say will be an ideal forum to solve disputes within the region’s construction sector.

The Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (BCDR) was launched yesterday by the Ministry of Justice and is being delivered in partnership with the American Arbitration Association (AAA).

The chamber claims to offer the world’s first arbitration “free zone” under new legislation introduced by the Bahrain government.

“The Bahraini courts, by statute, will provide for the laws of another jurisdiction but divest themselves of jurisdiction and not get involved,” said AAA senior vice president Mark Appel.

“So you can have your hearing here under the exclusive jurisdiction of somewhere like the UK and the Bahrain courts won’t get involved.

“That’s going to give international companies a substantial amount of confidence when coming into the Gulf to do business because they can have their cases heard in Bahrain using the jurisdiction agreed in their contract for matters of enforcement.”

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Richard Naimark of AAA added that the BCDR will offer a high level of quality assurance with professionally trained staff, procedures that mirror international expectations and expert arbitrators trained in specific fields, including construction.

“For anyone in the construction industry to assemble the process themselves it would most likely be ad-hoc and not achieve the best results. Here you have the entire package already assembled,” he said.

“I would image that people in the construction industry would really start to look at this for any arbitration or mediation because it’s very easy, accessible, and easy to trust. They’re not inventing anything, they’re plugging into AAA services which have been around for over 80 years.”

Naimark recommended companies reference the services of BCDR when drafting the future disputes clause of a contract. If not in the contract, disputes can still be taken to the BCDR, but both parties have to agree to arbitration or mediation.

“The time to do it is at the signing of the contract,” he said.

“When you’re in a dispute it can be a lot more difficult to agree because one party wants to move forward and the other often doesn’t.”