Enforcement of Foreign Arbitral Awards in Bangladesh: The Law, Its Implementation and Challenges

In this age, no one lives in an island. All are connected across the globe. This world is greatly premised on the free flow of trade, investment, knowledge, information and technology. Arbitration has been an important tool to expedite the process of international trade and investment by providing a speedy and, in some cases, a cost friendly method for dispute settlement. Arbitration has been successful in batting cross border jurisdictional and legal issues. However, the law and practice in some countries have shown that arbitration is again tied to the general mechanism of civil justice. This procedural intricacy makes arbitration a victim of delay, one of the evils of civil justice today. Recently, the World Bank has declared Bangladesh as a middle income country recognizing its sustained growth and resilient economy. In the context of current wave of economic transformation, international commercial arbitration has become a more relevant issue for Bangladesh. To progress and meet the demands of the international community, the Arbitration Act 2001 (the AA 2001) had been enacted in 2001 in line with the UNCITRAL Model Law on the International Commercial Arbitration. This includes provisions relating to the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards. This chapter shall focus on the provisions of AA 2001 in respect of the enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Bangladesh, the requirements to be addressed for enforcement and the challenges the parties may face in enforcement of foreign arbitral awards in Bangladesh. The Author analyzes the provisions of AA 2001 regarding enforcement of foreign arbitral awards and identifies some definitional, jurisdictional, territorial and interpretational challenges that the AA 2001 may face.