Page 404 - UAE Truncal States

The Formation of the Federation
67 of the constitution. It is described as ‘‘the executive authority of
the Union, and under the supreme control of the President of the
Union and the Supreme Council, [it] shall be responsible for dealing
with all domestic and foreign affairs” (Article 60). The catalogue of
the powers of the Council, running to ten points, underlines its
legislative capacity. A Union law is drafted here and then submitted
to the National Assembly before being presented to the President.
The Council of Ministers also drafts “decrees and various decisions”.
The remainder of the catalogue firmly reinforces the executive
authority of the Council.
The examination of the powers which the constitution ascribes to
the Union’s authorities indicates that the parliamentary organ, the
National Assembly of the Union,134 is neither the exclusive nor the
most prominent legislative authority in the stale, but in reality has a
predominantly consultative character. It may not initiate bills but it
discusses those which are submitted by the cabinet. In this first and
provisional constitution the functions of the organ of popular
representation are carefully tailored to the requirements of the
nascent State. Thus the role of the forty delegates135 was envisaged to
be generally to foster and enhance a growing sense of federal com­
munal awareness and to represent the different regional interests,
even though Article 77 states that a member ‘‘shall represent the
whole people of the Union".
The members of the Assembly do not have to be elected by popular
vote, although each Emirate may devise its own system for selection
of its quota of Assembly members. Here, too, the constitution is
appropriate to the requirements of the new federation, because the
nature of the tribal societies in each of the seven Emirates and the
earlier absence of formal education limited the choice of suitable
representatives to the small number of leading families. The
Assembly’s main role as a key link to strengthen the Union does not
prevent it from developing characteristics of other parliaments,
becoming a substantial counter-weight to the executive, and voicing
the opinion of a progressively more amorphous population. The
constitution is sufficiently vague to allow for the discussion in the
Assembly of most subjects, so that pressure may be exerted on the
executive authorities of the State.136
The provisions of the constitution dealing with the Judiciary
(Articles 94 to 109) are more in accordance with textbook provisions
than the specially tailored provisions dealt with so far. They provide
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