Page 342 - UAE Truncal States

The External Influences
from the Gulf and abrogate the treaties which had established the
special relationship, the enactment of local legislation accelerated,
not least because of constant prodding by the British officials who
were on the scene and could see clearly that these small States were
inadequately equipped with institutions, laws and administrators.
In some cases it took a considerable time for the transfer of
jurisdiction to be promulgated in a Queen’s Regulation, because not
all decrees issued by the Rulers were published in such a form as to
come automatically to the notice of British officials. Only Dubai and
Abu Dhabi adopted the habit after 1966 of publishing all decrees and
regulations. British officials who saw the need for these regulations
often helped by advising the Rulers to instruct their expatriate Arab
legal advisers to draft such laws.
During 1971, the final year of British jurisdiction in the area, a
number of existing decrees of the Rulers, which had been overlooked,
and a multitude of new decrees passed between 1968 and 1971 were
adopted in hastily-prepared and published Queen’s Regulations. A
total of 31 enactments in Abu Dhabi State during 1969 and 1970 were
recognised in June 1971 as amendments to the “Trucial States
Transfer of Jurisdiction (Miscellaneous Matters) Regulation 1971”. 105
An agreement between the Ruler of Ra’s al Khaimah and the British
Government regarding four enactments (Workmen’s Compensation
Law, Income Tax Law, a Penal Code and a Law of Criminal Pro­
cedures) was published as a Queen’s Regulation in May 1971. 10G
More such agreements were made throughout 1971 either with the
individual shaikhdoms or with the Trucial States as a whole.
During the two decades of formal British jurisdiction in the Trucial
States a great number of special regulations were made to suit
particular circumstances. Some of them have been mentioned before
as being of major importance; others included an Alcoholic Drinks
Regulation (No. 1 of 1954), a Prison Rules Regulation (No. 5 of 1957),
an Aircraft Accident Regulation (No. 1 of 1958), a Fire Arms and
Ammunition Regulation (No. 1 of 1955), an Orient Airways Accident
Regulation (No. 3 of 19 53),107 the Abu Dhabi Port of Jebel Dhanna
Regulation (No. 6 of 1967) and the regulation regarding the Traffic in
Cultured Pearls (No. 2 of 1952).100
Apart from the regulations specific to the area, jurisdiction was
applied according to laws and codes which were applicable else­
where where Britain had extra-territorial jurisdiction in the Gulf (for
example the Penal Code and the Code of Criminal Procedures). Some

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