The Authorities Responsible for Examining Disputes Between Depository Centers : A Study of Some Modern Arab Legislations

Abstract

One of the most important positive appearances of attracting investment in the country, especially foreign investment, is the establishment of a legislative environment that encourages investment and preserves the national economy. Among these legislations are those governing the settlement of investment disputes. Therefore, in this study, we discuss the natural and alternative litigation methods for settling disputes of companies and securities depositories, which are among the most important companies operating in the field of securities.

We divided this study into two sections. In the first section, we discussed the judicial jurisdiction for considering these disputes, clarifying the identification of the competent authorities in all the legislations under study. We concluded that there is an independent economic judiciary in these legislations, and we also concluded that the Saudi and Emirati judicial systems, concerning disputes of these companies, are more flexible than those included in the Egyptian and Jordanian legislations. We also discussed in this section how to appeal the rulings issued by these judicial bodies and the extent of their specificity, departing from the requirements of the general rules due to their special nature.

In the second section, we discussed alternative methods of dispute settlement related to companies and securities depositories, clarifying the role of arbitration in settling these disputes and the advantages and disadvantages included in these comparative legislations in this regard. We concluded that arbitration in these disputes has become optional, not obligatory, for the parties to the dispute. We also discussed conciliation and mediation as alternative means of resolving these disputes, concluding that all the comparative legislations have included the regulation of this method, except for the Jordanian legislation, which does not include the regulation of such a matter. We found that there are relevant authorities in each of the countries of the Arab comparative legislations that undertake the tasks of conciliation and mediation in these disputes