A court specialised in resolving international commercial disputes was launched yesterday, alongside the King Hamad Forum for Justice.
His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince and Prime Minister, inaugurated the forum on behalf of His Majesty King Hamad at the Isa Cultural Centre in the presence of leading legislators, judges, legal experts and top officials.
The Bahrain International Commercial Court (BICC), which was established by a Royal Decree last year, is an independent body designed to settle complex commercial matters.
It is set to handle high-value and cross-border commercial cases arising from trade, finance and investment, adjudicating disputes between parties located in different countries.
Matters covered include transactions involving the supply of goods or services, distribution agreements, leasing, and construction projects, consulting services, engineering works.
The court will also tackle cases related to investment activities, banking, insurance, joint ventures, and other forms of commercial co-operation.
Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (BCDR) and BICC board member Tom Sikora told the GDN that the court is a ‘visionary’ initiative, with ‘high-quality’ judges seated on its bench.
“This is the second international commercial court that’s been established anywhere in the world, after Singapore – and the first one in the region,” the arbitration expert said.
“Bahrain has a great opportunity to be the one place that’s truly neutral – where everyone comes to settle their disputes peacefully in accordance with the rule of law.
“The challenge is that international courts are a very new, very bold, visionary development, since in the past, national and local courts closely guarded their jurisdiction.
“People will be willing to settle disputes they wouldn’t bring anywhere else, they wouldn’t have the same confidence in the quality of justice as they will be for this court.”
The Singapore International Commercial Court (SICC), which the BICC was modelled after, is held up as an example to the potential of the new court.
SICC president Philip Jeyaretnam told the GDN that the two courts will complement each other, and that rulings made in one court could be challenged or appealed in the other.
“This is a culmination of a lot of work and effort that’s gone into the establishment of the BICC, that we’ve been helping with and have been greatly honoured to have a role in building up,” he said.
When asked when the first cases will be heard in the new court, the High Court of Singapore judge stated that the first cases to be brought forward to the new court will come from the SICC.
“Initially, there will be some transfers of existing commercial cases; it’s important for that to happen, so that the BICC builds up a track record, and people see how it all works in practice.”
Arbitrators and legal professionals are now drafting a new legal framework to ensure decisions by the BICC are enforceable around the world.
The new framework will then have to be ratified by nations around the world.
“Today, the non-enforcement of court judgments is a major challenge for the international system,” Mr Sikora added.
“What we need is an international convention, or a series of agreements, which would ensure that the judgements of international commercial courts, like the one in Bahrain, will be enforceable around the world.
“This is an area where Bahrain will have to show leadership and lead the way to ensure that these court decisions are legally recognised.
“I know Bahrain will work very hard to establish international treaties with other parties, to make sure that the judgement of the Bahraini court will be recognised.
“This is a big, long-term project, but one that is sorely needed because without such a convention, it would be difficult to get such judgements recognised.”
He explained that the process will begin with drafting the convention, then convincing various governments that it is a solution to the unenforceability of judgements, who will sign and ultimately ratify it.
However, he added that the reason international commercial courts still function without this framework is that the parties that come to get their disputes settled are generally co-operative and willing to find a solution.
“Parties bring their matter to Bahrain or Singapore because they have confidence in these jurisdictions, and therefore these judgements don’t always need to be enforced, because the parties themselves will abide by them,” he added.
On Sunday, the Shura Council unanimously approved the decree establishing the BICC.
&uuid=(email))