Page 340 - UAE Truncal States

The External Jn/luences
with the outside world, a legal code was required to cover the
activities of British aircraft, their crews and passengers, British oil
experts, businessmen and civil servants. It was considered to be
necessary to slate explicitly that these people as well as various other
foreign groups should not fall under the jurisdiction of local courts
and Rulers. This principle was established in the Trucial States
Orders in Council of 1946 and 1949. The further Order in Council of
1950 became the basis for the execution of British jurisdiction in the
Trucial Stales for two decades, to which the Rulers gave their formal
consent.97
The legal system which was applied throughout the duration of
this foreign jurisdiction was drawn from a variety of sources; for all
general purposes the Indian Legislature and the Bombay Legislature
were used. Provision was made for Acts of Parliament and Orders in
Council to be applied for specific purposes. A further source of law
were the provisions set out in the Third Schedules of successive
Orders in Council of 1950, 1956 and 1959. Provision was also made
for King's Regulations (Queen’s Regulations) under Article 82 of the
Order in Council of 1950; the most important such regulations were
those concerning the establishment and functioning of the TOL. In
the Orders in Council, rules for the administration of the courts were
laid down.98

The courts
A number of courts were established, arranged in hierarchical order
to allow for appeals. The first instance in all cases was the Court for
the Trucial Slates, under the Political Agent as judge. The Assistant
Political Agent, the Political Officer in Abu Dhabi or persons
appointed by the Secretary of State in London acted as assistant
judges. A Chief Court for the Persian Gulf, under the Political
Resident as judge, served as an appeal court in civil and criminal
matters, as well as the court of the first instance in certain criminal
cases which were assigned to it by the Order in Council. The Full
Court of the Persian Gulf was the higher appeal court, composed of
“not more than three and not less than two members nominated by
the Political Resident from among the following: the Political
Resident, the Assistant Judges of the Chief Court, the Judges of the
High Court of Kenya, the Judges of the High Court of Cyprus or
members of the Bar ... of not less than 9 years’ standing.’’99 Both the
latter courts could sit either in the Trucial States or within the limits
of the Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar and Muscat Orders in Council. The
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