The UAE has enacted a new law to govern the personal status of individuals, namely Federal Decree Law No. (41) of 2024 (“New Law”). This law has brought in significant changes to the laws governing personal status matters like marriage, divorce, custody and guardianship rights. With the enforcement of the New Law, the old Federal law No. 28 of 2005 (“Old Law”) will be abrogated. This article will discuss the changes in provisions surrounding marriage, such as engagement, dowry, and marriage guardianship.
Marriage
Marriage is defined in Article 16 of the New Law as a contract between a man and a woman that grant each other certain rights and duties over the other. Despite the fact that the fundamentals and conditions of marriage remain largely unchanged, there have been some modifications to specific provisions surrounding marriage.
Changes in provisions relating to applicable laws
As per the Old Law, the default laws applicable to family status cases was the UAE laws, unless parties involved in the case requests the application of the personal laws of their home countries. This rule was later amended to state that parties could choose to apply the law of the land where the marriage of the parties took place, in addition to the choice of the personal status laws of their home country.
However, as per Article 1 of the new Law, non-Muslims in the UAE can agree to apply any foreign law, not limited to the personal laws of their home country or the laws of the place where their marriage took place. This allows parties to decide which law they will be subjected to, by their own agreement. Prior to this change, in the event of a divorce, the place of marriage would determine financial rights, the rights of the couple over their children, and the grounds for any divorce application filed by either party. As a result, parties had to exercise caution when selecting the appropriate place for their wedding or marriage registration.
Gifts given during the engagement period
According to Article 11 of the New Law, engagement or betrothal is a man’s request to marry a woman who is lawful to him. It is customary that the parties exchange presents during the day of the engagement or thereafter, leading up to the marriage. Article 13 of the New Law states that everything that a fiancé or a fiancée presents to the other party during the engagement period will be considered a gift unless they can prove that the given items are part of the dowry. Consequently, as per Article 14, if either or both parties withdraw from the engagement, valuable gifts exceeding the value of AED 25,000 must be returned, along with all gifts that were given as dowry. If the gifts do not exist anymore, the value of the item at the time the gift was made must be paid to the party. However, this rule does not apply to consumable or perishable items. Additionally, if the engagement ended due to the death of a party or for reasons beyond the control of either parties, the gifts do not need to be returned.
Eligibility for Marriage
The minimum age for eligibility to marry continues to be 18, unless authorized by the court. However, a significant change in the New Law is reflected under Article 19(5) which states that if a fiancée is a virgin and the age difference between her and the fiancé is more than 30 years, the marriage cannot be concluded except with the permission of the court.
Guardian preventing marriage
As per Sharia and the UAE laws, in order for a marriage contract to be valid, the woman’s guardian must consent. The Old Law does not have any provisions regarding a scenario where the guardian refuses to give consent to a valid marriage. However, the New Law clearly states under Article 24 that in case the guardian does not allow a woman to get married to a man that she has agreed to marry and the man is willing to provide a fair dowry, the court has the authority to arrange the marriage on the request of the woman, by transferring the guardianship to someone else.
Conclusion
The passage of the New Law is an interesting development in the field of family law in the UAE. The New Law has brought in certain provisions that may be seen as equal for men and women. The New Law will come into force in the month of April, 2025 across all Emirates.
Disclaimer:
The above information might not apply if both parties are non-Muslim. Starting from the 1st of February 2023, UAE issued specific family law to be applied between non-Muslim expat residents in case none of them wanted to apply his/her home country's law in the UAE. To know more information about this law, please feel free to click this linkCopyright © of this article is retained by the author and/or other copyright owners. We explicitly grant you permission to download a copy, without any alteration, of this article for personal non-commercial research or study, without prior permission or any charge. This article can be utilized on your website or for marketing, however, we grant you permission to host this article on your website and no other rights. This content should not be altered in any way or sold commercially in any format without prior permission of the copyright holder. During reference of this article, full biographic details entailing the name of the author, his designation, the institute and the publishing date of the article shall be provided.
