Laws of UAE: Parliamentary System, Sources, and Court Structure

This report provides an overview of the laws in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), including the parliamentary system, sources of law, and court structure. It also discusses the rule of law and its strength in the UAE. The UAE follows a dual legal system, with the civil law system and Sharia law being the major sources of law. The report highlights the importance of understanding the legal framework in the UAE for individuals and businesses operating in the country.

Running head: REPORT 1
Business law and international context
Student details:
3/29/2019

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Contents
Introduction.................................................................................................................................................3
Parliamentary System of UAE.....................................................................................................................3
Sources of Law in UAE...............................................................................................................................4
Court structure operating in United Arab Emirates......................................................................................4
Category of legal system in UAE................................................................................................................5
The rule of law in United Arab Emirates and strength of rule of law..........................................................5
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................................6
References...................................................................................................................................................7

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Introduction
The purpose of the report is to enlighten the reader about the information about laws of the UAE. The fact
should be noted that every nation have its own differential laws that are formed and regulated in the
country (Aly Khedr and Alnuaimi, 2019). It is important to understand to source of law so as to analyse
the spirit of law and understand the actual and authentic meaning that the law states. The below
mentioned report outlines parliamentary system of UAE, along with source of law and a holistic approach
to evaluate the forms of laws conducted in the chosen country UAE.
Parliamentary System of UAE
The United Arab Emirates constitutes of seven emirates that are Abu Dhabi, Sharjah, Ra’s al-Khaimah,
Dubai, Ajman, Fujairah and Umm al-Qaiwain. The United Arab Emirates attained its independence from
United Kingdom in the year 1971(Web, 2019). The parliamentary system of the country was established
on the independence and was made permanent in the year 1996. The form of government that can be
referred to as federal presidential elected monarchy, because the president is elected from the monarchs
who will rule all the seven emirates present in UAE. The parliamentary system of the country is
constitutes of executive branch of the political system of a country. Further, elaborating the executive
system of United Arab Emirates, it should be noted that the chief of the state is President Khalifa bin
Zayid al-Nuhayyan (since 2004) is the ruler of Abu Dhabi. The Prime Minister and head of government
(Vice President) is Muhammad bin Rashid al-Maktum who is the rules of Dubai. Saif bin Zayid Al-
Nuhayyan (since 2009) and Mansur bin Zayid Al-Nuhayyan (since 2009) are the deputy Prime Ministers
of the country. The president of UAE appoints a Cabinet or Council of Ministers. The presence of Federal
Supreme Council (FSC) is made up of seven rules of each of the emirate present in UAE. These rulers
conduct meets four times in a year. In UAE, FSC is the highest constitutional body that establishes
general policies and sanction federal legislations. The FSC elects the President and Vice President from

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the prospective candidates; The FSC conduct meetings at five year intervals to make sure that the existing
President is working well or to elect a new one, however, there is no limit or interval in conducting
meetings but the minimum requirement is once in every five years. The last presidential election of
conducted in the year 2009. The president appoints the prime minister and deputy prime minister Helen
(Zeilger Assocaites, 2019).
Sources of Law in UAE
Most of the lawyers present in UAE have gained the experience with qualified information about however
they are working in other countries like Europe and US. As the prospects of working a society where the
legal system of the country is based on Islamic Sharia makes them feel discomfort. Talking about Islamic
Sharia, it is should be noted that it is a source of UAE law but it is not the only source. In this country,
specific law provides specific provisions and the UAE courts give effect to such provisions. The UAE
court passes judgement according to the law of Sharia in case the provision of UAE law is not present
there in order to cover the issue. The UAE court relies of the principles of Islamic jurisprudence in the
construction and the understanding of the UAE law. The Sharia word means ‘way’ or ‘path’, this law is
divine law of Islam. The principles of this law are based on two aspects that are, the Qur'an (the Holy
book in Islam), consisting of Allah’s divine revelations and the Sunnah (the saying and deeds of the
Prophet Mohammed).
Court structure operating in United Arab Emirates
There are three major branches in the court structure of United Arab Emirates. These three major
branches include civil, law, criminal law and Islamic law (Sharia law). In United Arab Emirates, the
structure of court includes the court of first instance, court of appeal and court of Cassation. The court in
United Arab Emirates would recognize the attorney appointed by complainant as per the law’s provisions

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and requirements. It is required by the attorney to prove the selection as the client’s representative as
according to the power of attorney (official dead) attested by the notary public (Abdulla, 2017).
Category of legal system in UAE
In United Arab Emirates, the Islamic law ( Sharia law) is applicable. The legal system of United Arab
Emirates is derived from the Sharia law as well as civil law system. In this way, the court system contains
the civil court and Sharia court. The penal code of United Arab Emirates is not totally depended on the
Islamic Sharia. However, the penal code of United Arab Emirates takes the various parts from this.
The Sharia law is existed in the United Arab Emirates. The Sharia law is applicable in various situations
like to make the payment of blood money (Nazar, 2015).
The Sharia law is applicable to every kind of dispute such as dispute related to commerce, civil dispute,
the offence related to capital crime and the matter related to own status. Every seven federal Emirates
keeps the parallel systems of Sharia Courts appropriate to this (Cordesman, 2018). The capability of
Sharia Court has been restricted by the civil court’s existence and Criminal Court’s existence. For most
of the criminal wrong doings like disloyalty, and use of hard drinks by the Muslim community, flogging
is the punishment. The flogging can be applicable on both the genders such as male as well as female.
From the year 2007 to year 2014, there are various people in the United Arab Emirates, who were
punished to one hundred lashes. In year 2015, forty per cent cases checked by the prosecutors were the
cases of wrong doings made by the youth or young people. Moreover, the stoning is the permissible
punishment as per the Islamic law or Sharia law. From the year 2009 to year 2013, various people were
punished to be died by the stoning (Al-Khazaleh and El-Din, 2018).
The rule of law in United Arab Emirates and strength of rule of law

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The word rule of law means to the governance’s principle in which every human being, every institution
and every public entity and every private entity, such as the state itself, are responsible to the law that is
circulated as per the public basis, similarly enforced and separately gave a ruling, and that are constant
with standards related to international human rights (Parreñas and Silvey, 2016). As per the rule of law of
United Arab Emirates, in the Sharia Law, like in the other legal system, the people are presumed
blameless or not guilty until they are proved blameless or innocent. The applicant as well as defaulter is
same in the court of law (Government AE, 2019). The equality is the strength of Rule of law in United
Arab Emirates. As per the Islamic law or Sharia law, crime that carries the specific penalty, are apostasy,
assassinate fornication, disloyalty, homosexuality and theft (Dayton and Takahashi, 2018).
As a whole, the person who want to live and do function in the United Arab Emirates, then that person
will have to limited by the law of a land, and follow the rules with the help of which Emiratis live. As the
expatriate, people are restricted to the law of the nation people live in.
Conclusion
As per the above analysis, it can be concluded that the constitution of United Arab Emirates that became
effective from 2 December 1971, gives all the fifth Section for the legal system. The legal system of
the United Arab Emirates is depended on the Constitution of the United Arab Emirates. The system
followed in United Arab Emirates is dual in nature as this has local court and central court with the
Supreme Court on the basis of Abu Dhabi. The United Arab Emirates is significantly the civil law jurisdiction
that depends in the first place on Roman, French, Egyptian laws . However, the Sharia law is major source of
the law in UAE. On the other hand, the International law is other source of the law, in compliance with the
duties signed in convention at international level (Al-Malkawi and Pillai, 2018).

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References
Abdulla, Y. (2017) Capital structure in a tax-free economy: evidence from UAE. International Journal of
Islamic and Middle Eastern Finance and Management, 10(1), pp.102-116.
Al-Khazaleh, Q. and El-Din, S. (2018) Legal Benefit: A Comparative Study between Legislation and
Islamic Jurisprudence. J. Pol. & L., 11, p.102.
Al-Malkawi, H.A.N. and Pillai, R.(2018) Analyzing financial performance by integrating conventional
governance mechanisms into the GCC Islamic banking framework. Managerial Finance, 44(5), pp.604-
623.
Al-Saadi, R. and Abdou, A. (2016) Factors critical for the success of public‒private partnerships in UAE
infrastructure projects: experts' perception. International Journal of Construction Management, 16(3),
pp.234-248.
Aly Khedr, A., and Alnuaimi, B., (2019) A Guide to United Arab Emirates Legal System [online].
Available from <http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/United_Arab_Emirates.html> [Accessed on 29
March 2019].
Cordesman, A.H. (2018) Bahrain, Oman, Qatar, and the UAE: Challenges of security. Routledge.
Dayton, B. and Takahashi, S. (2018) Arbitration Developments in the United Arab Emirates. Asian
Dispute Review, 2018(1), pp.30-37.
Government AE. (2019) The political system [online]. Available from
<https://www.government.ae/en/about-the-uae/the-uae-government/political-system-and-government>
[Accessed on 29 March 2019].

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Helen Zeilger Assocaites (2019) The Political System of the UAE [online]. Available from
<https://www.hziegler.com/articles/political-system-of-the-uae.html> [Accessed on 29 March 2019].
Nazar, J.K. (2015) Regulatory and financial implications of Sukuk’s legal challenges for sustainable
Sukuk development in Islamic capital market. Ethics, Governance and Regulation in Islamic Finance,
p.135.
Parreñas, R.S. and Silvey, R. (2016) Domestic workers refusing neo-slavery in the UAE. Contexts, 15(3),
pp.36-41.
Webb, N., (2019) Sharia As a Source Of UAE Law [online]. Available from
<http://www.hadefpartners.com/News/115/SHARIA-AS-A-SOURCE-OF-UAE-LAW> [Accessed on 29
March 2019].