SCCA participates in its first CLOUT meeting

SCCA participates in its first CLOUT meeting

Published Date: 04/04/2023

 

Contributing to Efforts to Disseminate Case Law Based on UNCITRAL Texts 

 

The Saudi Center for Commercial Arbitration (SCCA) participated for the first time in a meeting of the CLOUT Network, an international network of contributors to UNCITRAL’s legal database. SCCA has been appointed as the official representative of Saudi Arabia in the CLOUT Network, which met recently in Vienna, and selected as a member of its Steering Committee. Saudi Arabia is the only Arab country on the committee, which has 12 members from around the world.

 

CLOUT, the Case Law on UNCITRAL Texts system, is an international platform for the dissemination of information on court judgments and arbitral awards based on UNCITRAL conventions and model laws. Its purpose is to facilitate the uniform interpretation of UNCITRAL texts by reference to international standards consistent with the international nature of these legal texts.

 

The system relies on an international network of contributors with expertise in one or more UNCITRAL subject areas. Contributors research national case law, collect court decisions and arbitral awards relevant to UNCITRAL, and prepare case abstracts for publication in the CLOUT system.

 

The CLOUT Network meeting, held at the Universität Wien Faculty of Law, was attended by representatives of the member states of the network. They touched on a number of issues related to the CLOUT system, such as options for improving the CLOUT database and proposing new mechanisms for the creation of case abstracts. 

 

The network members also considered proposals for obtaining contributions from states whose court judgments are not available in CLOUT, and for supporting the adoption of new UNCITRAL texts, in particular the United Nations Convention on the International Effects of Judicial Sales of Ships and the UNCITRAL Model Law on the Use and Cross-border Recognition of Identity Management and Trust Services.

 

Since its establishment, CLOUT has published 1,661 abstracts of court judgments and arbitral awards in 65 jurisdictions, 447 of which relate to UNCITRAL model law.

 

SCCA participated in this meeting within the framework of carrying out the country’s role in the international dissemination of its judicial rulings related to commercial arbitration. It also fits into SCCA’s efforts to publicize the quantum leap Saudi Arabia is undergoing at the judicial level and disseminate Saudi judicial rulings related to commercial arbitration. The first two Saudi precedents have been published in the CLOUT system since SCCA was appointed as the national correspondent for Saudi Arabia.