Coun. Dr. Mohamed Aboul-Enein (1933-2008) was the Former Director of CRCICA from 1984 to 2008.  Throughout nearly 30 years of devotion and hard work, he raised CRCICA’s profile worldwide and ranked it among the most recognized arbitration institutions in the world of arbitration. He was the first to ground and promote the use of arbitration and ADR in Egypt and the Arab World.

In his capacity as Director of CRCICA, Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein provided technical and training assistance to nearly all the Arab arbitral institutions established since the early 1990’s. His regional contributions culminated in 1997 when he founded, with other Arab eminent figures, the Arab Union of International Arbitration (AUIA) and acted as its elected Secretary-General. In appreciation of all his efforts, he was widely acknowledged as the Godfather of Arab Arbitration.

Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein was the Vice President of the International Federation of Commercial Arbitration Institutions (IFCAI) and Chairman of the IFCAI Arbitral Institutional Section.  He was elected as the Chairman of the Cairo Branch of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).  He was the Vice-President of the Egyptian Branch of the International Law Association-London, Member of the American Association of International Law, elected Member of the Board of the Egyptian Association of International Law, elected Member of the WIPO Arbitration and Mediation Council, elected Vice President of the London Court of International Arbitration (LCIA), Member of the Board of Trustees of the Global Research Centre, Member of the Institutional Capacity Working Group  (ICWG(- WB, and Member of the International Advisory Board of the St. Mary’s University School of Law Centre for Conciliation and Arbitration St. Paul, Texas, USA.

Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein was the Constitutional Counsel of the People’s Assembly of Egypt. He joined the Egyptian Judiciary since 1954, continued his career until he was promoted to be the Senior Vice President of the Constitutional Court of Egypt.  Moreover, he participated in teaching in Egyptian and some foreign universities.

Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein acted as Co-Arbitrator, Sole Arbitrator, Conciliator and Chairman of arbitral tribunals in numerous international arbitrations under ad hoc and international arbitral institutions.  He was registered on the panel of arbitrators of many international arbitral institutions including;  the Berlin Court of Arbitration, the Dispute Settlement Panels of the World Trade Organization (WTO), the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber, the Court of International Commercial Arbitration attached to the Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Romania, and the China International Economic and Trade Arbitration Commission (CIETAC).

Furthermore, he was author of several publications and papers since 1958, in English, Arabic, and French, in various fields of law and arbitration including; international commercial law, international commercial arbitration, maritime arbitration, alternative dispute resolution, Islamic Law (Sharia), and the constitutional law. Delivered speeches at hundreds of international conferences and meetings organized by the UN agencies as well as other international organizations and arbitral institutions.

Throughout 2008 and early 2009, various commemorative events honoring Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein were held in different countries of the region.  In March 2009, two top awards were presented at CRCICA’s commemorative event titled “CRCICA at 30” to honour the name of Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein in expression of gratitude for his contributions for the renaissance of CRCICA for nearly 30- years.  The first award was CRCICA’s own Emblem of Honor and the other was the Peacemaker Award, highest award that was bestowed only twice, presented by the American Arbitration Association (AAA).

Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein received his LL.B from the Faculty of Law, Cairo University 1954, his LL.M. from the University of California (Berkeley) 1963 and his S.J.D. from S.M.U., Dallas, Texas 1967.

Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein left a wealth of constitutional and arbitration legacy that will stand as an everlasting token of his knowledgeable profile. Quoting Dr. Jernej Sekolec, Former UNCITRAL Secretary, Coun. Dr. Aboul-Enein was “a great Egyptian and an Arab patriot and a passionate internationalist and we will best honor him if we continue to work for the ideas that he so ably promoted”.