March 2021

The Tax Disputes Circuits of the Federal Primary Court and Federal Appeals Court were signed into law on 18 March 2019 pursuant to Minister of Justice Decisions No. 237 of 2019 and No. 238 of 2019, respectively. The Tax Disputes Circuit of the Federal Primary Court is responsible to hear challenges against rulings of a

In 1981, the Department of Fatwa (Legal Advice) and Legislation, the Department at the UAE Ministry of Justice responsible for advising government agencies on legal issues, issued an opinion on whether an employee who had been out of the country on a work-related trip and could not return due to a force majeure event, was eligible to continue

Qatar Courts Suspend Hearings for Two Weeks The Supreme Judicial Council of Qatar announced the suspension of hearings of the Appeal Court, the Court of First Instance, labor dispute settlement committees and rental dispute settlement committees as of 15 March 2020, for a period of two weeks. In a press statement, the Council affirmed the

As the Coronavirus pandemic takes its toll on businesses, many employment relationships are facing disruption, and employers are taking action on a mass-scale, with issues relating to unpaid leave, undue termination, or other actions that may be seen as a breach of contractual or lawful employment rights. Comparatively, employees who deem themselves victimized in the

As travel is hindered, staff work from home and general work routines (domestic and global) are disrupted, parties to litigation should consider options for managing trials via e-litigation strategies and technologies pursuant to recent developments in Emirati legislation. On 27 March 2019, Minister of Justice Decisions Nos. 260 and 259 of 2019 were issued to

TDRCs from 2019 – 2020 The tax dispute resolution committees (“TDRC” / “TDRCs”) began operation in 2019. There are three TDRCs in the United Arab Emirates: in Abu Dhabi dedicated to taxpayers with a registered address in Abu Dhabi and out-of-State registered taxpayers; in Dubai dedicated to taxpayers with a registered address in Dubai; and

Over the years, constitutional appeals have been filed before the Constitutional Circuit of the Federal Supreme Court for a plethora of matters, with the first constitutional judgement having been issued on 29 November 1973. Most recently – in rough figures – four constitutional appeals were filed in 2019, two in 2018, one in 2017 and

With the disruption to global business and trade due to the Coronavirus pandemic, parties may look to argue hardship events under the law to alleviate extraneous obligations (such as an extraneous increase of cost in concluding the obligation). Hardship events are occurrences that result in changing the equilibrium of a contract creating an extreme burden