Reflections on the New Egyptian Law on Arbitration

THE LAST three decades witnessed some very important steps in Egypt towards the modernization of its laws in the field of international commercial arbitration. In 1959, Egypt adhered to the 1958 New York Convention on the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards, and has, since men applied the unified rules contained in the Convention. However, extensive legislative and judicial national control reflecting a rather conservative attitude towards international arbitration dominated the scene. Consequently, the need for reform and for the adoption of more liberal and advanced rules on this subject was expressed by a vast majority of enlightened Egyptian scholars, practitioners and economists. The establishment of the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA) was a forward step in the right direction and one which has proved to have a tremendous impact on the growing trend among those concerned with international commerce to introduce reforms into the Egyptian legal system in this respect