The Unique World of Construction Arbitration: A Middle East Perspective

This article considers what makes construction arbitration in the Middle East different. It looks at how construction disputes arise and how they are dealt with in arbitration throughout the world, and then focuses on how the industry is different in the Middle East, and particularly the Gulf region, and how the practice of arbitrating such disputes in the region differs from elsewhere. Despite some obvious and well publicised difficulties with arbitration in the Middle East, the problems are mainly ones of efficiency, rather than fairness, and arbitration remains the preferred means of dispute resolution for the construction industry in the region.