Although more than five years have passed since the enactment of the Myanmar Arbitration Law 2016 (“MAL“), there have only been a handful of arbitration-related cases decided in the Myanmar Courts to date.
In the first reported decision of its kind, the Western Yangon District Court granted an order recognising and enforcing a foreign arbitral award against Myanmar parties. Another pro-arbitration decision saw the Yangon Region High Court uphold an order of the Western Yangon District Court to stay a civil suit and refer the dispute to arbitration pursuant to section 10 of the MAL.
However, in a case currently remitted back to the Eastern Yangon District Court, the Yangon Region High Court overruled the decision of the Eastern Yangon District Court to dismiss court proceedings that were commenced despite ongoing arbitration proceedings regarding the same dispute.
In this article, we provide a brief summary of three key judgments issued by the Myanmar Courts between 2020 and 2022 concerning provisions of the MAL and consider whether they demonstrate a trend towards an increased support for arbitration as an alternative dispute resolution mechanism.
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