DUBAI // The Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) Courts and the Dubai Courts yesterday signed a co-operation agreement that would allow them to enforce each other's judgments.
The terms of the new protocol require both the DIFC Courts and the Dubai Courts to assign one of their judges to enforce the judgments and arbitral awards wherever applicable.
The agreement, which comes into force on May 1, helps resolve a major issue facing both of the benches as each increasingly encroaches on the jurisdiction of the other.
The co-operation agreement was signed on behalf of the DIFC Courts by the Chief Justice, Sir Anthony Evans, and on behalf of the Dubai Courts by the Director General, Dr Ahmad bin Hazeem. The text of the protocol will be available in both Arabic and English on the websites of both institutions.
"The protocol of enforcement is a positive move for the judicial system in Dubai", said Justice Evans.
"Both the DIFC and the Dubai Courts are pillars of the UAE legal system and both authorities welcome any move to formalise our working relationship," Justice Evans said yesterday after the signing.
"This latest collaborative step will further increase the efficiency of both justice systems for users of the DIFC and Dubai Courts," he added.
In an earlier interview, Justice Evans said the DIFC Courts aim to improve co-operation with the other courts in the UAE on matters of enforcement to ensure the decisions of the DIFC Courts are enforced within the jurisdictions of other emirates.
"Enforcement requires co-operation," Justice Evans said in January.
"We want to evolve as a common law court alongside the local civil courts. It would be of mutual benefit if we can make common law procedures operate in harmony with local civil law courts."
The UAE's courts are based on the Franco/Egyptian legal model, but the DIFC Courts follow English common law. The DIFC Courts also do not hear criminal cases.
The DIFC Courts operate out of a fixed premises with eight judges hearing civil and commercial cases.
The courts can hold urgent hearings by video link with judges if none is available in person.
There are also two Emirati judges at the DIFC Courts who hear urgent cases at the Small Claims Tribunal.
The remaining six judges, while not permanently based in the UAE, can fly in within 48 hours' notice. All six judges come from common law countries, three of them from the UK.
The Small Claims Tribunal at the DIFC Courts hears cases concerning sums under Dh100,000 (US$27,000).
Last year the tribunal heard 56 cases, the vast majority of them involving employment disputes.
The DIFC Courts also follow their own insolvency or bankruptcy law and may appoint liquidators.
While the DIFC Courts do not plan any other formal agreements with other courts in the country, they have co-operated closely with all of them, especially those in Abu Dhabi.
Dr bin Hazeem said that the signing of the protocol signifies a new chapter in judicial co-operation between the two courts.
"This will lead to effectively maintaining a strong judicial system in Dubai and strengthen the enforcement of judgements and orders issued by the two courts, and also the arbitration agreements ratified by these courts."
hbathish@thenational.ae
What is a robo-adviser?
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Key facilities
- Olympic-size swimming pool with a split bulkhead for multi-use configurations, including water polo and 50m/25m training lanes
- Premier League-standard football pitch
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The smuggler
Eldarir had arrived at JFK in January 2020 with three suitcases, containing goods he valued at $300, when he was directed to a search area.
Officers found 41 gold artefacts among the bags, including amulets from a funerary set which prepared the deceased for the afterlife.
Also found was a cartouche of a Ptolemaic king on a relief that was originally part of a royal building or temple.
The largest single group of items found in Eldarir’s cases were 400 shabtis, or figurines.
Khouli conviction
Khouli smuggled items into the US by making false declarations to customs about the country of origin and value of the items.
According to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he provided “false provenances which stated that [two] Egyptian antiquities were part of a collection assembled by Khouli's father in Israel in the 1960s” when in fact “Khouli acquired the Egyptian antiquities from other dealers”.
He was sentenced to one year of probation, six months of home confinement and 200 hours of community service in 2012 after admitting buying and smuggling Egyptian antiquities, including coffins, funerary boats and limestone figures.
For sale
A number of other items said to come from the collection of Ezeldeen Taha Eldarir are currently or recently for sale.
Their provenance is described in near identical terms as the British Museum shabti: bought from Salahaddin Sirmali, "authenticated and appraised" by Hossen Rashed, then imported to the US in 1948.
- An Egyptian Mummy mask dating from 700BC-30BC, is on offer for £11,807 ($15,275) online by a seller in Mexico
- A coffin lid dating back to 664BC-332BC was offered for sale by a Colorado-based art dealer, with a starting price of $65,000
- A shabti that was on sale through a Chicago-based coin dealer, dating from 1567BC-1085BC, is up for $1,950
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Your rights as an employee
The government has taken an increasingly tough line against companies that fail to pay employees on time. Three years ago, the Cabinet passed a decree allowing the government to halt the granting of work permits to companies with wage backlogs.
The new measures passed by the Cabinet in 2016 were an update to the Wage Protection System, which is in place to track whether a company pays its employees on time or not.
If wages are 10 days late, the new measures kick in and the company is alerted it is in breach of labour rules. If wages remain unpaid for a total of 16 days, the authorities can cancel work permits, effectively shutting off operations. Fines of up to Dh5,000 per unpaid employee follow after 60 days.
Despite those measures, late payments remain an issue, particularly in the construction sector. Smaller contractors, such as electrical, plumbing and fit-out businesses, often blame the bigger companies that hire them for wages being late.
The authorities have urged employees to report their companies at the labour ministry or Tawafuq service centres — there are 15 in Abu Dhabi.
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Nepotism is the name of the game
Salman Khan’s father, Salim Khan, is one of Bollywood’s most legendary screenwriters. Through his partnership with co-writer Javed Akhtar, Salim is credited with having paved the path for the Indian film industry’s blockbuster format in the 1970s. Something his son now rules the roost of. More importantly, the Salim-Javed duo also created the persona of the “angry young man” for Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan in the 1970s, reflecting the angst of the average Indian. In choosing to be the ordinary man’s “hero” as opposed to a thespian in new Bollywood, Salman Khan remains tightly linked to his father’s oeuvre. Thanks dad.