Doha: President of the Supreme Judiciary Council (SJC) and President of the Court of Cassation H E Dr. Hassan bin Lahdan Al Hassan Al Mohannadi Participated in the Forum on Rule of Law in Digital Economy, a virtual conference organised by the Supreme Peoples Court of China, with the participation of a number of heads of judicial councils from around the world, in addition to a number of heads of specialised regional and subsidiary courts in China and its special administrative regions such as Hong Kong and Macao.
The Forum discussed the challenges that require a rapid response by the judicial and legal authorities in the countries of the world, as a result of the rapid transformations in the international trade arena and its disputes, with digital technology entering almost mainly in the field of commercial exchanges and deals.
In his speech, the President of the Supreme Judiciary Council stressed the awareness of the judiciary in Qatar of the large and rapid changes taking place in commercial transactions through various electronic media, which prompted them to spread quickly under the conditions of COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the disruption of supply chains due to many circumstances, the most important of which is the difficulty of direct meeting between companies and their representatives and transformation to electronic media, to meet the demand for purchase orders, and on the other hand, the increasing dependence of the final buyer on electronic purchasing facilities, and the important rationalisation it has created in the operating cost of industrial and commercial projects, which made this type of business dealings an easier option for both sides of the commercial operations.
He added that this new pattern of commercial operations has created an arena and a new approach to commercial disputes that appeal to the judiciary to resolve them and achieve their rights, this constitutes a major challenge, given that some mechanisms and legislations do not keep pace with the increasing demand of modern commercial disputes, to deter the exploiters of this new mode of international trade in illegal profiteering and to achieve a major imbalance in the balance of justice.
He stressed that the Qatari courts realised the importance of keeping pace with the changes in the global commercial arena and placed at the forefront of its priorities the need to find a specialised commercial judiciary methodology that relies on qualifying judges specialised in commercial disputes, and upgrading the capabilities of judges and their electronic judicial tools, to issue judgments and resolve commercial disputes with speed, accuracy and quality expected from both parties to related disputes in order to achieve prompt justice.
At the conclusion of the working paper he presented at the forum, Dr. Al Mohannadi said that the establishment of the Investment and Trade Court by the Supreme Judiciary Council, and its efforts to amend old legislation and introduce new amendments, and its diligence to find global partnerships that support the diversity of expertise of judges and their assistants in this modern court towards international trade lawsuits, especially disputes related to the digital economy, confirms the awareness of the State of Qatar and its institutions that the qualitative commercial court procession is one of the most important pillars of national economic growth, which in turn contributes to filling qualitative voids in the international trade system and its judicial disputes.
