United Arab Emirates: Civil Law

Off-plan property investments can quickly turn into costly disputes when developers fail to meet obligations.

Wife files a case against the husband for maintenance for herself and her daughter, and the custody of the child. The wife states that the marriage between the two had been unpleasant from the beginning, due to constant absence of the husband in the marital home, or the husband returning home drunk during late hours of the night, subjecting the wife to verbal abuse, and not providing for the family in spite of the husband’s substantial income. The wife claims that as a result, she was forced to obtain financial assistance from her brother and family.

International jurisdiction will apply if a foreign national claimant has domicile, residence or place of work in the UAE, and the respondent foreign national has no well-known domicile or residence abroad.

Creditors often find themselves unable to recover their debts from a debtor when, upon initiating enforcement procedures, they discover that the debtor has no assets available for execution.

Decennial liability is a statutory liability which typically allows building owners to recover damages for structural failures that threaten the stability...

As part of the legislative reforms initiated by the UAE government in the year 2023, several important laws have undergone an overhauling. As such, a new Civil Procedure Code has been enforced, namely, Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022, Promulgating the Civil Procedures Law ("CPL").

Cheques are widely used in UAE as a form of immediate or adjourned payment and are governed by specific legal provisions under Federal Decree-Law No. 50 of 2022 "the Commercial Transaction Law".

In the UAE, the arrest of individuals in criminal cases is governed by Federal Decree-Law No. 38/2022 on the Issuance of the Criminal Procedure Law.

In this video, Dr Hassan Elhais discusses several important legal information relating to Child Abduction laws in the UAE. Dr and a few actual cases where such laws were applied in the UAE.