Arbitration Rules Amendments to Limit High Divorce Rates

Restrictions that allow arbitrators to refuse to separate spouses

• Judicial reality The Emirati legislator called for a review of articles in the Personal Status Law to preserve the family and its status.

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• Dr. Hassan Al-Haimer: "The UAE legislator has relentlessly sought to reduce the high divorce rates through the continuous modernization of the legislative system."

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Judge at Dubai Courts, Dr. Hassan Al-Haimer, confirmed that the UAE legislator has striven diligently to reduce the high divorce rates through the continuous modernization of the legislative system, and the identification of arbitration rules that were amended under Law No. 8 of 2019 and Law No. 5 of 2020, which added some restrictions that allow arbitrators Refusal to separate in the interest of the family and children.

In detail, Judge Hassan Al-Haimer told "Emirates Today" through the "Legal Behavior" initiative, launched by Dubai Courts to spread legal knowledge, that the Personal Status Law is one of the laws that have undergone some amendments recently, like other laws that the legislator saw the need to amend its texts. In light of recent changes, more than 15 years have passed since its application, and it has been proposed as an alternative to what was previously practiced by the Maliki jurisprudence.

He added that what the judicial reality witnessed, and resulted in many divorce cases organized by Articles 118 and beyond of the Federal Personal Status Law, called on the Emirati legislator to reconsider those articles in proportion to the family’s status, and preserve them from the judicial rulings that end the conflict by differentiating between the couple.

He pointed out that as a result, the amendment was included in the text of Article 118 referred to by rejecting the divorce case for harm in the event that the wife failed to prove her claim without referring it to the arbitrators as was the case in the past before the amendment, which spares many families the provisions of divorce in implementation of the decisions of family arbitrators. Those who have been given the right by law to do so as long as they are unable to reform between spouses, which is witnessing a significant decline in the absence of social awareness of the dire consequences of divorce, whether for spouses, children or society.

He stressed that the UAE legislator - in addition to the above - persevered as much as he could to limit the increase in the divorce rate through arbitration rules regulated by Article 120 of the Personal Status Law, which was amended by Law No. 8 of 2019 and Law No. 5 of 2020, by placing some restrictions that allow arbitrators Refusal to separate in the interest of the family and children, as the first paragraph of Article 120 stipulates that if the spouses reconcile after the arbitrators’ recommendation to separate them and before the issuance of the ruling, the court must prove that reconciliation, which rightly expresses the keenness of the UAE legislator to cling to the hope of reconciliation until the last breath of peace. The duration of the case that precedes the closing of the pleading and the seizure of the case for judgment, and if the two judgments reach a decision of separation, the judge has no choice but to prove it is obligatory in application of the first paragraph of Article 120.

He pointed out that it is noted that the legislator instructed the arbitrators in the third paragraph of the same article to refuse to separate if the husband clings to his wife, in the event that reconciliation is not possible between them, and all the abuse is on the part of the wife, and the husband is the one who is requesting the separation or each of them is a student, and the court takes into account in It is in the interest of the family.

He explained that there are restrictions mentioned by the law in the fifth paragraph of the same article, and if they are achieved, the arbitrators may propose to reject the divorce case, if reconciliation between the spouses is not possible, and the case is not known, and the offender is not known, and the husband is the applicant for separation, and the arbitrators also have the choice in what they deem appropriate for the family situation. And the children in separating them without an allowance, or refusing to differentiate between them if the wife is the one requesting or each of them is asking for the separation if reconciliation between the spouses is not possible, and the situation is not known and the offender is not known.

• The Emirati legislator is keen to cling to the hope of reconciliation until the last breath of the lawsuit.

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