Alsuwaidi & Company LLC provides a comparative analysis in bunker litigation under the Laws of England and Wales and the United Arab Emirates
A ship arrest in the United Arab Emirates (hereinafter as the ‘UAE’) is a preservatory remedy to obtain security, in favour of a claim in the merits whether to be commenced through court litigation or arbitration. For this purpose, the UAE adopted a ‘closed-list’ approach for the definition of a ‘maritime claim’, where a list consists of limited numbers of maritime debts are defined and based on which only a ship could be arrested. These are reduced to 15 classes of maritime claims listed in article 115(2) of the UAE Federal Law of No. 26 of 1981, as amended by Federal Law No. 11 of 1988, concerning the commercial maritime law (hereinafter as the ‘CML’). A bunkering claim is listed in paragraph (i) of article 115(2) of the CML, which classifies it as: ‘Supplies of products or equipment necessary for the utilisation or maintenance of the vessel, in whichever place the supply is made.’
