Courts in the United Arab Emirates
The UAE came into existence as an independent Federated State on 02 December 1971, consisting of six Emirates - Abu Dhabi, Ajman, Dubai, Fujairah, Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain. The seventh Emirate Ras Al Khaimah joined UAE on 10th February 1972.
The UAE Constitution has adopted three levels of Courts, they are -
How the Courts in the UAE work?
The Courts in the UAE works hierarchically-
(i) The appeal can be filed only on a point of law, if there is a violation of law or if the Judgment is the result of a misinterpretation of the existing law; or
(ii)The claim in the matter must not be less than AED 200,000.
If the matter complies with any of the two conditions, the appeal must be filed within 60 days from the date of passing the Judgment by the Court of Appeal. Any Judgment passed by the Court of Cassation is not eligible to appeal anywhere else, it is the final Judgment.
Court Circuits
The court at each level has a President, several Judges or single Judges wherever required, and administrative officers.
Under the judicial circuits, there are several branches of court with specific jurisdictions. At each level of the judicial system, the respective circuits look into several matters such as - civil matters, criminal matters and personal statute matters. Based on the scope of the case and the expertise possessed by the Judges, the division is made.
The person bringing up a lawsuit must carefully observe under which circuit the lawsuit shall be filed before taking it to a Court. Depending on the value, and the subject matter of the case, the matter shall either go to the minor circuits or the major circuits.
The minor circuits have the power to review the matters of personal status, division of common property, employment matters involving claims and specification of salaries and wages.
However, for the lawsuits whose value does not exceed AED 20,000, the Judgment passed by the minor circuit is final.
The major circuits also have jurisdictions in dealing in the matters of:
Other than these two, each court consists of judicial circuits in the matter of personal statutes, civil, criminal, real estate and labor.
In addition to the above-mentioned system, the UAE also has certain Common Law courts such as the Dubai International Financial Centre Courts and Abu Dhabi Global Market Courts, which are independent judicial authorities modelled on the English judicial system.
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