Considering the UAE is a major trading hub and a host country for foreign investment, arbitration is becoming an optimal method, for parties to solve their commercial disputes.

Many foreign investors prefer to assign their disputes to arbitration committees for many reasons such as:

• to avoid long process of commercial disputes reviewed by courts of law
• to avoid controversial international laws and accordingly save time, money and efforts which would otherwise be spent on many sessions at the courts of law
• the lack of precedent doctrine in the UAE which makes the result of disputes somehow uncertain
• the fact that the court proceeding is conducted in Arabic.

The arbitrator's decision is viewed as a settlement having the power of execution once being acquired by the court of law concerned.

In 2012, on an average, 57 per cent cases were settled through alternative methods.

Refer to mediation.

In addition to the above, a number of specialised federal courts were established to handle special types of cases. Some of them are:

• information technology courts
• consumer protection courts
• trans-border crimes courts
• state security court.