Shura Council approves draft law establishing investment and trade court

The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting on Monday, under the chairmanship of HE the Speaker Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud

The Shura Council held its regular weekly meeting on Monday, under the chairmanship of HE the Speaker Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, via video conference at the Council's headquarters. At the outset of the meeting, the Shura Council discussed a draft law on mediation in settling civil and commercial disputes, which consists of 32 articles and defines mediation agreements in which its provisions apply, the procedures and methods for mediation and the conditions that must be met by the mediator, the procedures for stopping the lawsuit in court if the parties agree to settle the dispute through mediation, and the procedures for the settlement agreement. After discussion, the Council decided to refer the draft law to the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee for study and submit a report on it to the Council. The Shura Council reviewed the report of the Legal and Legislative Affairs Committee on the draft law establishing the investment and trade court. After extensive discussion of the report, the Council recommended amending one of the articles of the draft law, approved it in its amended form and referred its recommendations regarding it to the esteemed government. The draft law has 35 articles that include the formation of the investment and trade court and its primary and appeals departments. The draft law also defines the jurisdiction of the court, including disputes related to commercial contracts, lawsuits arising between merchants and related to their business, disputes related to non-Qatari capital investment in economic activity, disputes related to the operations of banks, insurance companies, financing and investment companies, bankruptcy disputes, bankruptcy preventive conciliation, patent disputes, protection of competition, prevention of monopolistic practices, combating practices harmful to national products in international trade, disputes related to e-commerce and its transactions, and disputes related to partnership contracts between the government and private sectors. HE the Speaker briefed the Council on his participation as Chairman of Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption (GOPAC) in the Regional Symposium of the Pacific Island Parliamentarians Against Corruption, which was held via video conference last Tuesday. His Excellency praised the symposium's discussions, which focused on the role of parliaments and parliamentarians in combating corruption, especially in the field of raising awareness of its dangers, enacting legislation to combat it and tightening penalties for its perpetrators, in addition to the need to prepare well for the special anti corruption session that will be held by the UN General Assembly in New York in June, as it is a very important event and will give a great political impetus to global efforts in combating corruption. (QNA)