ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the regulatory attitude toward international arbitration in Saudi Arabia. It discusses the regulatory attitude toward arbitration from the creation of the Saudi state in the 1930s to the first oil boom in the 1970s. The chapter examines arbitration cases to which the Saudi Government was party, such as the Wahat Alburaimi and the well-known case of Arabian American Oil Company. Saudi Arabia and their impacts on the Saudi legal system. It focuses on the period from the mid-1970s until now, a period which experienced a shift in attitudes toward attracting foreign investment. The attitude of the Saudi Government toward international arbitration has been strongly influenced by the outcome of the Aramco award of 1958. After the Aramco award, international arbitration was viewed by the Saudis as a breach of their national sovereignty, manifested in terms of disrespecting their laws and regulations and applying foreign laws to their national wealth.
