On 5 February 2024, the Dubai Court of Cassation found in Commercial Case No. 821/2023 that a successful party to an ICC arbitration cannot recover its legal fees despite the wording of Article 38(1) of the ICC Rules which includes “reasonable legal and other costs incurred by the parties for the arbitration” into the list of costs of the arbitration.

As this is a standard language found in most major arbitration rules, the implications of this judgment are as far-reaching as its reasoning is difficult to digest. Nonetheless, in their post on the Kluwer Arbitration Blog published today, Senior Counsel Sergejs Dilevka and Associate Dimitriy Mednikov consider in detail the arguments and reasoning in the 5 February 2024 judgment of the Dubai Court of Cassation and the 27 April 2023 judgment of the Dubai Court of Appeal that preceded it.

Read the full article here

For more information, please contact the authors at:

Sergejs Dilevka Senior Counsel S.dilevka@galadarilaw.com

Dimitriy Mednikov Associate dimitriy.mednikov@galadarilaw.com