DIFC-Seated Arbitration & DIAC

Choosing the DIFC as the seat of an arbitration means the DIFC Arbitration Law (DIFC Law No. 1 of 2008) is the curial law and the DIFC Courts are the supervisory court – a UNCITRAL Model-Law framework supervised by a common-law, English-language court, distinct from onshore UAE arbitration under Federal Law No. 6 of 2018. Since Dubai Decree No. 34 of 2021, DIAC is the sole Dubai arbitral institution; the former DIFC-LCIA was abolished and its administration moved to DIAC, and under the DIAC Arbitration Rules 2022 the default seat – absent the parties’ choice – is the DIFC. Awards are enforced under the New York Convention. This is the DIFC-specific layer of our wider arbitration practice.

DIFC-seated arbitration at a glance

• Curial law (lex arbitri): DIFC Arbitration Law (DIFC Law No. 1 of 2008, as amended)
• Supervisory court: The DIFC Courts (common law, English language)
• Institution: DIAC (sole Dubai institution since Decree 34 of 2021); ad hoc / UNCITRAL also possible
• Default seat, DIAC Rules 2022: The DIFC, absent the parties’ agreement
• Enforcement: New York Convention; the DIFC Courts ratify, then onward onshore

1. What it means to seat an arbitration in the DIFC

The seat is the juridical home of an arbitration – it fixes the curial law (the law governing the conduct, supervision and challenge of the arbitration) and the supervisory court, regardless of where hearings physically take place. Seat the arbitration in the DIFC and the DIFC Arbitration Law governs, and the DIFC Courts exercise supervisory jurisdiction; seat it onshore and Federal Law No. 6 of 2018 applies, supervised by the onshore courts. The seat is not the same as the venue (where hearings are held) or the governing law of the contract – three distinct choices that are routinely, and dangerously, conflated. The choice of seat is one of the most consequential lines in an arbitration clause, because it determines who supervises the arbitration and on what terms an award can be challenged.

2. DIAC after Decree 34 of 2021

Dubai Decree No. 34 of 2021 (September 2021) reshaped Dubai’s arbitral landscape: it abolished the DIFC-LCIA Arbitration Centre and the EMAC and made DIAC the sole arbitral institution in the Emirate, transferring their assets and caseloads to DIAC. Existing DIFC-LCIA clauses are now generally administered by DIAC, which assumed the pending cases – though the treatment of legacy clauses has been litigated, so a clause referring to the former institution should be reviewed rather than assumed to work seamlessly. DIAC operates under its Arbitration Rules 2022, and a point that catches parties out: under those Rules the default seat, where the parties have not agreed one, is the DIFC (with the DIFC Courts supervising), replacing the old onshore-Dubai default. Parties remain free to choose a different seat expressly.

3. The DIFC Courts’ supervisory role

As the supervisory court for a DIFC-seated arbitration, the DIFC Courts can appoint or replace arbitrators, decide challenges to arbitrators, grant interim measures in support of the arbitration, hear applications to set aside an award on the limited grounds in the DIFC Arbitration Law (mirroring the UNCITRAL Model Law), and recognise and enforce awards. The hallmark is limited curial intervention: the Courts support the arbitration and police its integrity, but they do not re-hear the merits, and the Arbitration Division (one of the four CFI divisions under the 2025 Courts Law) brings specialist, arbitration-literate judges to that supervisory role.

4. Interim measures and tribunal powers

A tribunal in a DIFC-seated arbitration can order interim measures – preservation of assets or evidence, security for costs, and the like – and the DIFC Courts can grant interim relief in support of the arbitration, including freezing and disclosure orders, before the tribunal is constituted and during the proceedings. Following the Carmon decision (now codified in the 2025 Courts Law), the Courts can grant such relief even in support of arbitration seated elsewhere. We cover those powers, and the without-notice procedure, on freezing orders and interim relief in the DIFC.

5. Enforcing a DIFC-seated or foreign award

DIFC-seated and foreign awards are enforced through the DIFC Courts under the New York Convention and the DIFC Arbitration Law: the Court ratifies the award (on the narrow Convention grounds of refusal only) and enters judgment, and the resulting DIFC judgment can then be carried onshore for execution – and, for India-facing parties, the DIFC route can reach Indian assets too. The mechanics, the conduit and the recent Decree 29/2024 framework that governs the onward step are set out on enforcing foreign judgments and awards through the DIFC.

6. Why parties choose a DIFC seat

The appeal of a DIFC seat is the combination it offers: a UNCITRAL Model-Law arbitration statute that international parties and arbitrators know; a neutral, English-language, common-law supervisory court with arbitration-literate judges and a pro-arbitration, minimal-intervention record; and an enforcement pathway that runs both onshore (via the conduit) and internationally (via the New York Convention). For a cross-border deal where neither side wants the other’s home courts, and where the award may need to be enforced against UAE assets, a DIFC seat is often the natural middle ground – which is why it has become one of the region’s most-used seats.

7. DIFC seat or onshore seat?

8. Drafting the arbitration clause

Because so much follows from it, the clause should be drafted deliberately, not copied. The essentials are the seat (the DIFC, if that is intended – stated expressly, not left to a default), the institution and rules (DIAC and the 2022 Rules, or ad hoc/UNCITRAL), the governing law of the contract (a separate choice from the seat), the number of arbitrators and the language, and any scope or escalation (for example a negotiation or mediation tier first). The avoidable failures are familiar – a clause naming a non-existent institution (the abolished DIFC-LCIA, without provision for DIAC), confusing the seat with a hearing venue, or asymmetric wording – and they are far cheaper to fix at drafting than to litigate later.

9. The DIFC arbitration practice

ATB Legal drafts and reviews DIFC arbitration clauses (seat, institution, law and language), represents clients in DIAC and other DIFC-seated arbitrations, brings and resists supervisory-court applications before the DIFC Courts – appointments, challenges, interim relief and set-aside – and enforces or challenges awards onshore, in the DIFC and abroad. This page is the DIFC-specific complement to ATB Legal’s wider UAE and international arbitration practice.

Frequently asked questions