Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation (General Assembly), Request No. 6 of 2025 (Civil), decision of 18 December 2025
Under Articles 222 and 223 of the Civil Procedure Law, enforcement of foreign judgments, orders and foreign arbitral awards is sought by petition to the execution judge, whose order may be appealed directly to the Court of Appeal. The order remains an order on petition, and under Article 141 such orders can be challenged only up to the appeal stage. A judgment of the Court of Appeal on such an order therefore cannot be challenged in cassation. The General Assembly's earlier distinction between purely procedural execution rulings and disputes over the execution title does not apply here.
A personal status chamber asked the General Assembly to settle whether judgments of the Court of Appeal on petitions to enforce foreign judgments, foreign orders and arbitral awards made abroad can be challenged in cassation.
The General Assembly observed that, under Article 141 of Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022, orders on petition may be challenged by grievance before the competent court or the judge who issued them, unless the law provides otherwise, and the ruling on the grievance is open only to appeal. Articles 222 and 223 now require enforcement of foreign judgments, orders and foreign arbitral awards to be sought by a petition to the execution judge, who decides within five working days, and the order may be appealed directly under the rules for appealing judgments. The same rule appeared in Articles 85 and 86 of the Implementing Regulation of the former Civil Procedure Law (Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2018, as amended by Resolution No. 75 of 2021); by contrast, Articles 235 and 236 of the repealed Civil Procedure Law required an ordinary action before the court of first instance. The absence of a grievance step and the direct appeal do not change the nature of the execution judge's decision: it remains an order on petition, and the rules governing such orders allow a challenge only by appeal. Had the legislature wanted a further cassation appeal, it would have said so. The legislative shift was designed to shorten the enforcement path for these judgments and awards.
The General Assembly added that its earlier principle on Article 175(3), which limited the bar on cassation to rulings on purely procedural execution matters and allowed cassation where the execution title itself was disputed, does not extend to enforcement of foreign judgments and awards. It adopted the principle that no appeal in cassation lies against Court of Appeal judgments on orders on petition concerning the enforcement of foreign judgments, orders and arbitral awards.
For award creditors and holders of foreign judgments, the decision makes the Abu Dhabi enforcement route faster and more final: once the Court of Appeal has ruled on the execution judge's order, there is no further challenge in cassation. Debtors resisting enforcement of a foreign award or judgment must therefore make their full case before the execution judge and the Court of Appeal.
| Articles 141, 175(3), 222 and 223 of Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022 (Civil Procedure Law) — text of articles 141, 175, 222, 223 |
| Articles 235 and 236 of Federal Law No. 11 of 1992 (former Civil Procedure Law) Decided under this law; it has been replaced by Civil Procedure Code. |
| Articles 85 and 86 of Cabinet Resolution No. 57 of 2018 (Implementing Regulation of the former Civil Procedure Law), as amended by Cabinet Resolution No. 75 of 2021 |
| Article 9 of Abu Dhabi Law No. 6 of 2024 on the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department |
“اعتماد المبدأ الذي يقضي بعدم جواز الطعن بالنقض في الأحكام الصادرة من محكمة الاستئناف في الأوامر على العرائض”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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