Arbitration in the Middle East: What the SCCA report means for parties and legal finance

September 30, 2026

Hannah Howlett

Summary

The Middle East is becoming an increasingly important forum for international dispute resolution, driven by growth in high-value commercial activity across construction, infrastructure, energy, technology, financial services and cross-border investment. As that activity grows in scale and complexity, it creates demand for sophisticated dispute resolution mechanisms.

Burford is also seeing more inquiries from claimants and law firms about disputes connected to the Middle East, whether through the underlying dispute, counterparty, assets, enforcement strategies or the choice of forum.

The SCCA report

The UAE has long been an important regional disputes hub, supported by the onshore courts, the DIFC and ADGM “offshore” or common law courts and a well-developed arbitration ecosystem. Saudi Arabia’s dispute resolution offerings add another important piece to that regional picture.

The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration’s recent report, Arbitration in Saudi Arabia: Case Law and Legislative Analysis in Light of the UNCITRAL Model Law and Saudi Arbitration Framework, provides valuable insight into how Saudi courts are approaching arbitration in practice.

Published on 1 July 2026, the report analyses 967 arbitration-related rulings issued by Saudi Courts of Appeal between January 2023 and June 2025. The report allows parties to assess Saudi arbitration on actual court practice and data. Key findings include:

Of the 967 judicial decisions analyzed, 194 annulment applications were filed. Of those, 174 were rejected, an 89.7% rejection rate.
Only 20 annulment applications succeeded. Of those, 12 resulted in full annulment and eight in partial annulment.
Only three annulments rested on public policy, and only one of those also relied on Sharia.
Most successful challenges arose from recognizable procedural and jurisdictional issues, including tribunal constitution, notice and procedural fairness, excess of mandate and statutory time limits, rather than routine merits review.

Looking at cumulative data from five SCCA studies to date, covering more than 3,300 judgments issued between 2017 and 2025, the rejection rate for annulment applications stands at 91.7%.

Further reform is also proposed, including emergency arbitrators, interim and partial awards, virtual hearings and broader arbitrator qualification rules. The amendments remain under review and may change before enactment, but point to Saudi Arabia’s continued modernization of its arbitration framework.

The role of legal finance in regional arbitrations

As arbitration in the Middle East matures, cost, risk and timing will remain central commercial considerations. High-value regional disputes can involve significant spending on counsel, experts, tribunal and institution fees, translations, document production and enforcement, particularly when proceedings cross borders or an award requires enforcement in multiple jurisdictions.

Legal finance can help parties manage those pressures. It can fund arbitration fees and expenses, support award enforcement, provide liquidity through monetization of claims or awards and finance portfolios of arbitration matters. That makes it a tool for sophisticated businesses seeking to manage risk, preserve capital and pursue meritorious claims without diverting cash from core operations, as well as for claimants facing resource constraints.

The SCCA report also makes a practical case for procedural discipline. Successful annulment applications largely turned on avoidable procedural and jurisdictional missteps.

Legal finance can give claimants the resources to engage experienced counsel, develop the evidentiary record, manage procedure carefully and plan for enforcement from the outset.

That support can continue after an award. Where a debtor does not pay voluntarily, finance can fund enforcement or accelerate value through monetization or an award purchase.

Conclusion

The Middle East is not a single dispute resolution market. The region contains different legal systems, court structures, enforcement regimes and institutional practices.

But developments in Saudi Arabia, the UAE and other regional centers are strengthening the region’s infrastructure for high-value commercial disputes.

Growing arbitration activity will increase demand for capital solutions that help businesses fund claims and pursue enforcement. Parties will need confidence in a dispute resolution forum and the capital to use it effectively.

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