title: Promoting Reform in Libya's International Commercial Arbitration
Creators: name: Eltweri, E
Publisher: name: Liverpool John Moores University
Year: 2026

description: This study focuses on certain significant facets of the law concerning resorting to arbitration within commercial disputes. Primarily, commercial relationships have grown exponentially among enterprises, individuals, and states, with international trade developing at a rapid rate. Increasingly, businesses have become exposed to different working partners, cultures, trade practices, and legal systems within various countries. Such diversity has introduced higher risks and new opportunities, while giving rise to numerous disputes and international disagreements. At the international level, further difficulties emerge due to the various jurisdictions comprising different laws, procedures, legal transactions and, sometimes, languages. As a result, significant legal conflicts and potentially high costs emerge, especially for commercial firms operating their trade across international frontiers. Therefore, there is encouragement for parties to initially consider alternative dispute resolution (ADR) mechanisms for resolving disputes that could endanger peace, security, and international commerce. International commercial arbitration (ICA) has become the most important ADR widely adopted for resolving business disputes, particularly across national/political borders. Conflicts that cannot be settled through negotiation require resolution in compliance with the legal procedure. The parties should have faith in this procedure, or at least be in a position appropriate to the parties; for example, international trade contract parties often favour arbitration as a neutral, private, and independent system. This thesis aims to evaluate the role played by arbitration within Libya, involving an assessment of the development of Libyan case law and legislation for arbitration to address various complex disputes that have the potential to arise internationally in a comprehensive range of trading relationships. The methodology adopted for this thesis includes doctrinal, empirical, and comparative study. The doctrinal method is employed to explore detailed knowledge concerning the legal frameworks governing international commerce arbitration. The empirical study involves structured and semi-structured interviews. Moreover, a comparison is drawn between draft laws and the current provisions for arbitration within the context of the Egyptian Arbitration Law, English Arbitration Law and the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law Model Law on International Commercial Arbitration. Additionally, reference is made, at certain junctures, to other laws and jurisdictions. However, international trade arbitration is considered a preferable process for settling cross-border disputes. Along with the relative ease of enforceability of the awards, its neutrality renders it a more suitable consideration for disputes than litigation in the domestic courts of the contracting parties. It should be noted that ICA has devised reliable means of dispute resolution. The agreement of parties to submit to the arbitration proceedings is a significant initial step towards successfully resolving disputes or addressing potential issues that could arise.