Prince Dr. Bandar Bin Salman Bin Muhammed Al-Saud, Chairman of the Consultative Committee for Arbitration, said the committee has succeeded in convincing world law experts to accept graduates of Shariah to work as an international arbitrators in international courts. Addressing a meeting at the Chamber of Commerce held in Al-Qassim, Prince Bandar said, “We have succeeded in having graduates of Sharia and Law treated equally and in introducing Sharia rules into the system of the Permanent Arbitration Court in the Hague, which is the world's International Court.” Apart from this he said, “The chief judges of the International Court have agreed to adopt the Islamic Sharia as one of the sources of the court's legislation. We have also succeeded in introducing the rules of the Islamic Sharia in the International Chamber of Commerce in Paris which was established 100 years ago.” “In addition to this, we have succeeded in introducing Arabic language as one of the languages of arbitration which until recently were limited to English and French,” he added. Prince Bandar said arbitration is an independent entity and has nothing to do with advocacy pointing out that the committee is making efforts to spread the culture of arbitration in Saudi society. “Advocacy means to defend others and to find excuses for them while the arbitrator serves as a judge pointing out that one of the most important tasks of arbitration is to help judges and lighten their burden,” he said. He said the arbitrator's decision is unbinding unless a document in this context is signed by the disputing parties noting that a code of ethics will be issued for all Saudi arbitrators soon.
