UAE Trends and Developments Contributed by: Awatif Al Khouri and Hassan Elhais, Awatif Mohammad Shoqi Advocates & Legal Consultancy
The Modern Architecture of UAE Marriage Contracts For years, legal practitioners and residents navigated the personal status ecosystem primarily through the lens of Federal Law No. 28 of 2005. This law was recently replaced by Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024 on the Issuance of the Personal Status Law (which became effective in 2025), which is applicable for Muslims in the UAE. Moreover, the civil personal status regime has matured in the UAE with Federal Decree‐Law No. 41 of 2022 on Civil Personal Status (applicable for non-Muslims in the UAE except Abu Dhabi) and Abu Dhabi Law No. 14 of 2021 on Civil Marriage and its Effects (applicable for non-Muslims in Abu Dhabi). These laws are based on internationally accepted practices and customs in terms of family laws, creating a legal framework separated into two systems where one is the Sharia-based system for Muslims and the other is the secular civil system for non-Muslims. Accordingly, marriage contracts are now increasingly used for risk mitigation, asset pro ‑ tection and succession planning. Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024 on the Issuance of the Personal Status Law For Muslim nationals and residents, Federal Decree- Law No. 41 of 2024 provides controls governing the conditions in the marriage contract under Article 33. The terms and conditions of the marriage contract are binding unless they are against the law. If these conditions contradict the very essence of marriage, then the marriage contract shall be null and void. If these conditions do not contradict the very essence of marriage but they are against Sharia or the marriage contract’s inherent legal effect, then such conditions shall be void but the marriage contract shall survive. When these conditions do not contradict the essence of marriage, the legal effect of the marriage contract, or Sharia, then they are valid and should be fulfilled. When a valid condition is not fulfilled, then the non- breaching party may request divorce. This right is waived after the passage of one year from the date of knowledge of the breach, which is considered implied consent. This right also lapses if the divorce is already final. If the husband breaches the contract, then the divorce shall be issued without compensation, and if the wife breaches the contract, then the divorce shall
be issued with compensation that does not exceed the value of the dowry. The marriage conditions shall only be considered for divorce if they are written in a marriage contract signed by both parties. If either of the parties denies the marriage conditions, then they will not be con ‑ sidered unless such conditions were recorded in an authenticated marriage contract. Article 51 of the Law reaffirms the separation of assets. Each spouse retains their own financial estate. Fur ‑ thermore, regarding joint assets, Article 51 (2) grants a spouse the right to claim a share if they contributed to those joint assets. The parties may enter into a contract specifically stat ‑ ing that their contribution to a joint property purchase is not a gift but an investment requiring reimbursement upon divorce. This could save the parties from the evidentiary hurdle required to prove whether it was a gift or an investment. If the divorce has been granted, the wife is entitled to claim certain financial rights. These rights are gov ‑ erned by the Federal Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024 on the Issuance of the Personal Status Law. A dowry ( mahr ) is an amount that is agreed between the parties at the time of marriage and is one of two types: (i) prompt dowry ( mokadam ), which is paid at the time of marriage; or (ii) deferred or late payment ( moajal ), which is written in the contract and is payable at the time of divorce. Compensation ( nafket motta’a ) is to be given to the wife if the divorce was issued to the wife by the husband with no valid ground. According to Fed ‑ eral Decree-Law No. 41 of 2024, the compensation amount will not be given to the wife if she was an applicant in the divorce proceedings. If the husband has not financially supported the wife, the wife has the right to claim backdated expenses that are equivalent to the wife’s day-to-day expenses for the last 24 months. If the wife claims such expens ‑ es, the husband would have to prove that he had financially supported the wife or, in case of failure to
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