A Comparison of the Legal Systems in the UAE, Iran and Israel
A Comparison of the Legal Systems in the UAE, Iran and Israel. The UAE was declared a sovereign and independent state in 1971 and it incorporates seven emirates. On its legal system, UAE draws its core principles from Sharia law but its legislation also incorporates a mix of European and Islamic concepts of civil law rooted in the Egyptian legal concept of the 19th and 20th century. The state has specific legal legislations that covers company law, intellectual property, and labor law while it has also enacted the commercial and civil codes. Such has led to the development of a structured and comprehensive legal system. While the legal system of the UAE has similarities to that of Iran due to the Sharia affiliations, there are wide contrasts to the Israeli system based on common law.
As mentioned, the legal system in UAE is based on the core principles of Sharia law while also incorporating civil law that has European influence. The legal system has similarities to the Iran legal system that was altered in 1979 to largely incorporate Sharia law. Even with the reliance of Sharia law, the Iranian legal system also incorporates elements of civil law in its civil law legal system. Under the 1979 constitution of Iran, the judicial system in the country is an independent power and this is similar to the establishments in the UAE constitution that has led to the creation of different levels of courts. The UAE constitution was established in 1971 and though it was meant to be a temporary constitution, it has evolved to be a permanent one.
A Comparison of the Legal Systems in the UAE, Iran and Israel
Even with the similarities between the legal system in UAE and Iran, there are certain emergent differences such as the fact that the usage of Sharia law is widespread in the Iranian legal context as compared to that of UAE. In the UAE, the application of Sharia law has been limited to social aspects and this includes family law, succession, and divorce. Differently, Iran applies Sharia law in a wider context and this involves its application even in business and other areas beyond social laws.
The Israeli law differs significantly to the legal system in the UAE and Iran mainly because the country’s laws do not subscribe to the doctrines of the Sharia law. Israel’s legal system has a basis on common law and contains influences from Canadian Law, American Law and Germany’s Continental Law. As an example, while some cases in the UAE and Iran may not be subject to appeal when judged from the Sharia context, the legal system in Israel allows for the exploration of appeal where the highest court in the land is the Israeli Supreme Court. A similarity that can be drawn from the UAE, Iran, and Israeli law systems is that they all have religious interferences. While UAE and Iran have Sharia Law, Israel has religious tribunals where certain legal matters are subjected to the jurisdiction of the religious tribunal. Such is aligned to the recognition of the different religious communities in the country that include Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
From the consideration of the three legal systems, they bear a similarity in that they incorporate religious aspects as well as the civil and common law. UAE and Iran have more similarities in their legal systems due to the incorporation of the civil law and Sharia law. Sharia law has more precedence in Iran as compared to UAE and this is largely because the UAE is modernizing its legal system.