Our Team

STA's Team of Lawyers in Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Doha, UAE, Luxembourg, Moscow, RAK, Sharjah, and Singapore. Find a Lawyer. ..

Read more information

Abu Dhabi's new regulation on marriage and divorce

Abu Dhabi's new regulation on marriage and divorce

According to the Judicial Department of Abu Dhabi, the goal of this circulate is to provide "a bendy and superior judicial mechanism for the willpower of private fame disputes for non-Muslims, for this reason improving the Emirate's function and international competitiveness as one of the maximum appealing locations for expertise and skills" What is the Personal Status Law for non-Muslims? The regulation is the Emirates' first civil regulation governing non-Muslim own circle of relative topics. According to the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department, the regulation objectives to assure non-Muslims the proper to stick to "across the world recognized regulation" in phrases of customs, culture, language, and protective the great pursuits in their youngsters. The new regulation might practice civil ideas within side the law of all own circle of relative's topics relating to non-Muslims, making it the primary of its type in Gulf countries, in which marriage and divorce legal guidelines are guided through Islamic Sharia regulation. The Judicial Department will installation courts committed to non-Muslim own circle of relative's topics beneath\ the brand-new regulation, and they may perform in Arabic and English "to facilitate foreigners' knowledge of judicial approaches and to enhance judicial transparency," the Justice Department said, saying the established order of the primary such court. According to the Abu Dhabi Judicial Department (ADJD), the regulation includes 20 articles divided into five chapters handling civil marriage, divorce, baby custody, and inheritance. The first bankruptcy of the law modifies the wedding method for foreigners by introducing the idea of marriage primarily based totally on the desire of the husband and spouse. The second bankruptcy establishes legal guidelines for non-Muslim divorce approaches, outlining the rights of divorced companions and the economic rights of a spouse after divorce. A choice might determine a spouse's economic rights after separation primarily based totally on standards such as "the range of years of marriage, the spouse's age, monetary stability. The 0. 33 bankruptcy is set baby custody after divorce. It introduces the idea of joint custody, wherein custody of a baby is shared similarly through the mom and father. This idea is blanketed within the regulation "to hold the youngsters' mental fitness and protect the brotherly love of the own circle of relatives after divorce. The fourth bankruptcy establishes legal guidelines for an inheritance, will registration for non-Muslims, and the proper of a foreigner to attract a will and skip on their property to whomever they choose. The 5th bankruptcy of the regulation addresses non-Muslim foreigners' evidence of paternity, "supplying that the evidence of paternity of the new child baby is primarily based totally on marriage. What has the regulation modified for non-Muslims in Abu Dhabi? Sharia regulation calls for each bride and groom to be Muslim or that the groom is Muslim and the bride is Christian. While Muslim people can also additionally marry non-Muslim women, the opposite is not permitted. The new regulation does not call for the consent of the woman's dad or mum and, as an alternative, call for the wedding to be primarily based completely on the person and woman's will.  Non-Muslims can search for divorce while not showing that the wedding changed into abusive, and both partners can document for divorce. Previously, bodily damage needed to be established for divorce, in line with Khaleej Times, a UAE media organization. Previously, couples who filed for divorce needed to visit the Family Guidance department, in which a court-appointed conciliator tried to reconcile the two companions. Without going thru those approaches, the divorce can now be granted at the preliminary hearing. In the case of baby custody, while the brand-new regulation permits each dad and mom to have joint custody and similarly proportion custody after divorce, custody previously changed with the mom, and the daddy changed into a dad or mum (to financially provide) for the baby. "Custody and guardianship are separate problems that need to be addressed for my part as dad and mom do now no longer proportion same duties for a kid within side the UAE," in line with the older regulation.