ABSTRACT
One of the declared objectives of the OBOR initiative is to promote economic prosperity by fostering economic cooperation between the countries along the Belt and Road routes. Such a laudable objective would not be successfully achieved if legal protection and assistance were not secured. One of the major tools to guarantee legal protection is to ensure that judgments rendered in one of the states along the Belt and Road be recognised and enforced in other partner states. However, an examination of the recognition and enforcement regimes in some potential OBOR countries reveals that the status quo is far from being satisfactory. This chapter focuses on the judgments recognition and enforcement regimes in the Middle Eastern and Gulf Arab countries that are potentially concerned with the initiative either directly or indirectly. By examining the law of these countries, this chapter aims to highlight the difficulties that may be encountered by foreign judgments holders from other OBOR countries if appropriate measures are not taken to ameliorate the status quo of the recognition practice emphasising the role of the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments as a tool of regional economic integration. This goal can be achieved by reforming national law in order to align it with the internationally accepted standards. A similar result can be reached by enhancing regional cooperation through establishing and/or adhering to multilateral instruments that guarantee the free movement of judgments among the potential OBOR countries.
