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The Rwandan Courts Position on Impact of Criminal Proceedings on Arbitration Cases

By Denis Ngendahayo

Law and World · Vol. 11, No. 33, pp. 47-59 · 2025

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Abstract

Rwandan courts, including the Supreme Court, have confirmed that a principle known in French as “Le criminel tient le civil en état”, which is provided by the law relating to the criminal procedure and determines the relationship between criminal matter and civil matter that has a public order character. This means that neither the parties to the case nor the court can derogate from it whenever it comes to the knowledge of each. As a consequence, the criminal case has suspensive effect on the arbitration case as a civil case and ignoring this can lead to the award being set aside by a court. However, when it comes to its applicability, courts defer in interpretation on where and when to apply it.The Rwandan Supreme Court, in a case Soras Assurances Generales Ltd v. Tromea Ltd, refused to set aside the arbitral award in 2017, putting some limitation on the applicability where it maintained that this principle does not apply to every civil case involved by criminal action. However, in a case Kalpataru Power Transmission vs. Rwanda Energy Group held on 12.04.2024, the High Commercial Court set aside the arbitral award due to this principle, despite parties citing the Supreme Court jurisprudence in their pleadings, but the court advanced that the limitations are not clearly exhaustive. Therefore, since the Supreme Court did not clearly elaborate in which cases, the principle should be used and in which it should not, the present research, with the support of critical analysis of these two cases, is to probe into which effects the criminal case has on the arbitration case. The article proposes the possible recommendation of which criteria this principle can be applied for the limitation provided by the Supreme Court to be clear and exact.

Details

Publication type
Journal article
Author
  • Denis Ngendahayo - University of Rwanda, Member of Rwanda Bar Association, Member of East African Law Society, Private Notary, Rwanda
Journal
Law and World
Publication
March 31, 2025
Volume
11
Issue
33
Pages
47-59
Language
English
DOI
10.36475/11.1.4
ISSN
2346-7916
Institutions
University of Rwanda
Access
Open access
Licence
CC BY-SA 4.0
Added to catalogue
Metadata source
Supplied by the publisher

Areas of law

Arbitration

Keywords

Criminal case arbitration case court position Rwanda

Cite this record

Ngendahayo, D. (2025). The Rwandan Courts Position on Impact of Criminal Proceedings on Arbitration Cases. Law and World, 11(33), 47-59. https://doi.org/10.36475/11.1.4
Ngendahayo, Denis. "The Rwandan Courts Position on Impact of Criminal Proceedings on Arbitration Cases." Law and World 11, no. 33 (2025): 47-59. https://doi.org/10.36475/11.1.4.
@article{ngendahayo2025_2s0psg,
  title     = {The Rwandan Courts Position on Impact of Criminal Proceedings on Arbitration Cases},
  author    = {Ngendahayo, Denis},
  year      = {2025},
  journal   = {Law and World},
  volume    = {11},
  number    = {33},
  pages     = {47--59},
  doi       = {10.36475/11.1.4},
  issn      = {2346-7916},
  language  = {en},
  url       = {https://lawandworld.ge/index.php/law/article/view/672},
  note      = {Open access}
}
Download BibTeX 
TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ngendahayo, Denis
TI  - The Rwandan Courts Position on Impact of Criminal Proceedings on Arbitration Cases
PY  - 2025
JO  - Law and World
VL  - 11
IS  - 33
SN  - 2346-7916
DO  - 10.36475/11.1.4
LA  - en
UR  - https://lawandworld.ge/index.php/law/article/view/672
AB  - Rwandan courts, including the Supreme Court, have confirmed that a principle known in French as “Le criminel tient le civil en état”, which is provided by the law relating to the criminal procedure and determines the relationship between criminal matter and civil matter that has a public order character. This means that neither the parties to the case nor the court can derogate from it whenever it comes to the knowledge of each. As a consequence, the criminal case has suspensive effect on the arbitration case as a civil case and ignoring this can lead to the award being set aside by a court. However, when it comes to its applicability, courts defer in interpretation on where and when to apply it.The Rwandan Supreme Court, in a case Soras Assurances Generales Ltd v. Tromea Ltd, refused to set aside the arbitral award in 2017, putting some limitation on the applicability where it maintained that this principle does not apply to every civil case involved by criminal action. However, in a case Kalpataru Power Transmission vs. Rwanda Energy Group held on 12.04.2024, the High Commercial Court set aside the arbitral award due to this principle, despite parties citing the Supreme Court jurisprudence in their pleadings, but the court advanced that the limitations are not clearly exhaustive. Therefore, since the Supreme Court did not clearly elaborate in which cases, the principle should be used and in which it should not, the present research, with the support of critical analysis of these two cases, is to probe into which effects the criminal case has on the arbitration case. The article proposes the possible recommendation of which criteria this principle can be applied for the limitation provided by the Supreme Court to be clear and exact.
KW  - Criminal case
KW  - arbitration case
KW  - court position
KW  - Rwanda
KW  - სისხლის სამართლის საქმე
KW  - საარბიტრაჟო საქმე
KW  - სასამართლოს პოზიცია
KW  - რუანდა
SP  - 47
EP  - 59
ER  -
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