United Arab Emirates
The DIFC and ADGM each have a two-tier court system: the Court of First Instance and the Court of Appeal. The respective court rules of the DIFC and ADGM have broadly similar procedures for the appeal of judgments of the lower court. In each case, before the judgments of the Court of First Instance can be appealed to the Court of Appeal, permission to appeal is required.
Obtaining permission to appeal differs slightly between the DIFC and ADGM courts:
- under the DIFC court rules, where permission to appeal is initially refused on the papers, a party may seek to renew the application at an oral hearing; and
- under the ADGM court rules, all applications for permission to appeal are considered without a hearing. In DIFC court proceedings, an application for permission to appeal may be made to:
- the Court of First Instance at the hearing where the judgment was made; or
- that court or the Court of Appeal in a subsequent appeal notice.
If permission is sought by way of an appeal notice, that appeal notice must be filed either within the period directed by the lower court or, if no such direction was provided, within 21 days after the date of the decision of the lower court that the appellant wishes to appeal. If the lower court refuses permission, a further application for permission can be made to the Court of Appeal within 21 days of the lower court's refusal.
In ADGM court proceedings, and similar to DIFC court proceedings, permission must be obtained from a decision of a judge in the Court of First Instance in order to appeal to the Court of Appeal. In order to obtain such permission, an application may be made to the Court of First Instance within 14 days of the date when the decision to be appealed was made. Should the Court of First Instance refuse an application for permission to appeal, a further application for permission to appeal may be made to the Court of Appeal within 28 days from the date of the refusal. All applications for permission to appeal are considered by a panel of three judges without a hearing. The panel may grant or refuse permission to advance all or any of the grounds of appeal or invite the parties to file written submissions within 14 days in relation to the grant of permission. Permission to appeal may only be granted where the panel considers that the appeal would have a real prospect of success or there is some other compelling reason why the appeal should be heard.