As trade winds change direction, moving west to east, it is unsurprising to see international arbitration in places outside North America and Europe. The traditional arbitration centres of Paris and London now compete with Singapore, Dubai, and others from Asia and beyond.
In a sense, we have been here before, some of the earliest trading between civilisations, over 4000 years ago, was between the Indus Valley Civilisation in the Indian Subcontinent with the Mesopotamians. Well before the Portuguese ships arrived in India in the 17th century, during the Abbasid dynasty (8th-12th centuries), Arab traders used the alternating monsoon winds to navigate the Indian Ocean; hence, their name derives from the Arabic word “Mausam” for the weather. During the 9th and 12th centuries, Arab and Persian merchants traded with East African coastal states, with ships plying the Indian Ocean, Red Sea, and Persian Gulf, bringing import and export goods between the East Indies, China, India, the Arab Lands, Persia, and East Africa. It was a time of great contact between cultures, during which some 37 city-states emerged in what is now Somalia, Kenya, Tanzania, and Mozambique.
Not too far away north, on land, along the Silk Road, Persian, Chinese, Arab, Armenian, and Russian traders and missionaries travelled the Silk Road, and in 1335 a Mongol mission to the Pope at Avignon confirmed increased trade and cultural contacts.
But today’s trade goes beyond diverse geographical dynamics, occurring in an increasingly digital space cutting across traditional boundaries.
Looking ahead, what does this mean for the resolution of disputes by international arbitration – and what will the UAE’s role be in this evolving landscape. Join SADRC for a discussion on the challenges and opportunities the changing arbitration landscape brings to the UAE and beyond.