The Legal 500

by Richard Catling - r.catling@tamimi.com

The proposed Federal Law on Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy (the “Law”) revolutionizes bankruptcy rules, for both individuals and companies, currently comprised within the civil law. 

International businesses must devote ever increasing resources to avoid involvement in anti-corruption offences. Of course, for decades the strict provisions of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, or FCPA, have applied to American corporations, defined broadly to include entities whose securities are listed on American stock markets. These provisions have led to many non-U.S. corporations being caught in FCPA violations.

The Dubai Government recently issued Law No. 16 of 2011 on Amending Some Provisions of Law No. 12 of 2004 Concerning the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts (the “Law”). The effect of the Law is that it significantly expands the jurisdiction of the Dubai International Financial Centre (“DIFC”) courts. In addition to providing parties with no connection to the DIFC the option of resolving disputes through the DIFC courts, the Law also opens up the possibility of avoiding the UAE court system and allowing parties to opt for an English-based, common law court.

Gordon Blanke and Soraya Corm-Bakhos, Arbitration department, Habib Al Mulla & Company

It is commonplace in international arbitration theory that an arbitral award is not worth the paper it is written on unless it is easily enforceable. Unfortunately, enforceability is not always a given in international arbitration practice. Enforcement of foreign awards in the UAE may serve as an instructive example.

The UAE Judiciary operates under a civil law system which is largely influenced by Islamic and European civil law; also, civil matters between Muslims are governed by Shariah law. In addition to subject-specific legislation which covers a variety of matters, the UAE has also adopted commercial and civil codes. 

If the transient bout of economic recession is kept aside, yester years witnessed huge growth in the financial sector of the UAE. This inspired a big chunk of expatriate population to relocate to the UAE both for employment and investment. With the most congenial economic and employment ambience created by the visionary rulers of the country, many of the expatriates made significant economical gains too.

Mark Gilligan & Douglas G. Smith: September 2011 

UAE Agency law impacts upon many different aspects of commercial life in the United Arab Emirates. The governing law, Federal Law No. 18 of 1981 (“the Agency Law”), is extremely broad and captures commercial activities ranging from a classic principal/agent relationship to franchising and distribution agreements. The Agency Law is a framework which serves to champion the rights of the local commercial agent, normally at the expense of the (typically foreign) principal. 

Karim Nassif: April 2011 

Prior to discussing misrepresentationit is important to understand the structure of the legal system in the UAE.

Mazen Boustany: April 2011 

Fraud in Emerging Markets
Like the very recent events in Tunisia and Egypt have proven, any mention of fraud and corruption in the MENA region and people tend to think right away about governments and civil servants, rather that private corporations that are considered-wrongly of course- less concerned by this ordeal, but they are also considered in this part of the world, at least, as having less impact on the society as a whole.

In a commercial transaction, we cannot deny that there are traders and businessmen who result to deceitful or fraudulent activities in order to gain.

DURING THE BOOM TIMES, DUBAI AND THE UAE seldom experienced insolvency cases, so it became a widespread rumour that the UAE does not have an insolvency law. In addition, it had also been widely speculated that the UAE has a very archaic regime in which debts can lead a debtor to jail.

Country Q&A United Arab Emirates - There are several free zones in the UAE and each free zone has its own regulations for creating security interests by entities licensed within that zone and/or over property located within it. However, aside from the creation and enforcement of security interests in the UAE, this chapter is restricted to security interests in the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) and in the Jebel Ali Free Zone Authority (JAFZA), the first free zones in the UAE around which the laws of most other free zones are modelled.

Ian Bode of Al Tamimi & Company’s Qatar office introduces the issues relating to commercial leases in Qatar. [Note: depending on the lease form, references in a lease can either be to “landlord and tenant” or to “lessor and lessee”. In this article, “landlord” and“tenant” are used]. Property lawyers in Qatar assume substantial responsibility when preparing commercial leases. They establish contractual relationships between landlords and tenants which govern the use and occupancy of property often for a period of years. One inappropriate word in a covenant, could expose a tenant to an unintended financial liability or a landlord to an unintended obligation.

By Ahmad AnaniBanking & Finance Department - Qatar The State of Qatar has one of the strongest and fastest growing economies in the world. The Qatari economic numbers are astonishing with Gross Domestic Product (GDP) standing at 52.7 billion US Dollars in 2006 and per capita income averaging to 76,000 US Dollars (2007). The GDP of Qatar is mainly derived from its oil and gas production (60%). Nevertheless, the Government of Qatar has a detailed plan to diversify the economy based on the oil and gas revenues that are surging due to the international increase of oil prices.