Past Events

On 5 June 2013, Judge Yehia El-Dakroury, Vice-President of the State Council of Egypt and Former President the Club of the Judges of the State Council, delivered a lecture on "Reflections on Law, Judiciary and Arbitration". The topic covered the recent position of the Egyptian judiciary regarding a wide range of legal matters including privatization and arbitration.  

On Tuesday 14 May 2013, the Cairo Centre organized a seminar on CRCICA NEW MEDIATION RULES: A Drive to the Future. The event was held in cooperation with the International Finance Corporation (IFC - a member of the World Bank Group), the Egyptian Ministry of Justice and the Investors Dispute Settlement Center- General Authority for Investments and Free Zones (GAFI). The seminar tackled the salient features of CRCICA New Mediation Rules, effective as of January 2013, and their foreseen practices out of different perspectives. Beside the institutional perspective, the views of mediators, lawyers and representatives of businesses were highlighted. In addition to this, one whole session was devoted to the discussion of the draft of the new Egyptian Mediation Law prepared by the Egyptian Ministry of Justice. The seminar was attended by more than 20 law firms in Egypt. Also, there were senior representatives of construction and petroleum companies, ministries of justice and investment, banks, universities and Arab arbitration centres. Lectures were followed by lively discussions among the panelists and the audience. The Rules were very well received from the representatives of the different business sectors as well as lawyers and governmental officials.  

On 8 May 2013, Judge Dr. Borhan Amrallah, Secretary-General, Arab Union of International Arbitration (AUIA); Former President of the Cairo Court of Appeal, delivered a speech on "The Enforcement of Foreign and Domestic Arbitral Awards". The speech focused on the conflict of laws governing the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Egypt and the position of the Cairo Court of Appeal as well as the Egyptian Court of Cassation in light of the New York Convention for the Recognition and Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards.  

On 8 April 2013, Dr. Karim Hafez, principal of HAFEZ; Member of the Arbitration Court of the London Court of International Arbitration- London, delivered a speech on " The appointment and Removal of Arbitrators." The lecture covered salient features relating to the selection and removal of arbitrators, their exact role as well as the legitimate expectations of the parties. The conclusion included some perspectives for the future. The lecture was followed by a lively discussion involving eminent legal figures from both the private and the public sectors.  

In July 2012, the International Court of Arbitration for Sport (ICAS) and the Cairo Regional Centre for International Commercial Arbitration (CRCICA) entered into agreement entitling CRCICA to host the first Alternative Hearing Centre (AHC) for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Africa. CRCICA-hosted CAS AHC is the fourth all over the world. The other three AHCs are in Malaysia, China and United Arab Emirates. "The presence of CAS in the region will simplify the procedures as the parties will no longer need to travel to the CAS headquarters in Switzerland to defend their cases," said Mr. Mathew Reeb, CAS Secretary General. However, all AHCs all over the world are only seats for CAS Hearings without any liabilities to get involved in neither the procedural nor the substantive aspects of the dispute. In implementation of the Agreement, CRCICA hosted the first CAS hearing session on 27 March 2013. The case in question involved the official agent of players of a popular sport, an African Federation of the same sport and a well known player. Over couples of hours, the hearing remained on live broadcasting to Lausanne of Switzerland through CRCICA's video conferencing facility. Upon the completion of the hearing, CRCICA received formal thanks and acknowledgement from the CAS Secretariat for "the precious help in the organization of the hearing". The institutional cooperation between CRCICA and CAS is expected to ensure the status of CRCICA as an international arbitral organization administrating many trade and investment disputes in addition to a growing number of sports related disputes during the last years. It is also foreseen to have a future positive impact on the functioning and accessibility of sports arbitration procedures in a region having thriving sport practices both qualitatively and quantitatively. However, their resulting disputes lack the required paralleled development of alternative means for the settlement of sports disputes especially sports arbitration and mediation.