Insights

Washington –January 11, 2024: Crowell & Moring announced today that Mark Fenoughty, an experienced senior financial executive, has joined the firm as its new Chief Financial Officer. Fenoughty will lead the firm's finance and accounting functions and play a key role in driving the firm’s business priorities.

The global energy crisis together with the ongoing energy transition received top billing for 2022 and, from an international disputes perspective, will continue to dominate in both the short and medium term. In particular, disputes arising from price volatility of raw materials and energy are expected to be the leading cause of disputes, followed by the construction of energy infrastructure (which was the leading cause of disputes in the last five years). International arbitration remains the clear choice for the resolution of energy disputes.

The highly anticipated 2022 revised rules of the Dubai International Arbitration Centre (“DIAC”) were approved by the DIAC’s Board of Directors on February 25, 2022. The revised rules will come into effect starting March 21, 2022 and will govern all new requests for arbitration that are submitted on or after that date.

Dubai’s government recently made significant changes to its arbitral framework as part of its effort to strengthen the position of the Emirate as a dominant center for international dispute resolution in the region. Decree No. 34 of 2021 (the “Decree”), issued by Dubai’s ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum on September 14, 2021 and effective as of September 20, 2021, has fundamentally altered the existing arbitration framework in Dubai, and has the potential to have significant impacts for parties whose arbitration agreements name the now-abolished institutions.

This panel will provide an update on issues related to current topics in arbitrating international disputes in MENA: