Is sharia law an obstacle to the development of commercial arbitration in the countries of the gulf cooperation?

Abstract EN

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) has been slow in accepting cutting-edge arbitration practices due to the fear of Islamic Sharia law, which is seen as an obstacle to improving arbitration in the region.

This thesis confirms that there is great flexibility within Sharia to accommodate modern global commercial arbitration practices, and that the delay in accepting these practices is due to various factors, such as the bad experience of the Gulf Cooperation Council countries with arbitration.

This research reveals that arbitration in the GCC countries will only be realistic if updating the legal guidelines for arbitration is blended with an increased understanding and acceptance by the Western legal community of Sharia as an existing legal system.