Page 398 - Truncal States to UAE_Neat

The Formation of the Federation
While Ihc centralistic tendencies had only qualified success in
practice, they featured prominently in the text of the constitution.127
Part Seven (Articles 120-125) deals directly with the balance of
centralistic and federalistic elements and is entitled “Distribution of
legislative, executive and international jurisdiction between the
Union and the Emirates”. Article 120 contains a catalogue of
nineteen matters for which the central authorities shall have
exclusive legislative as well as executive powers.128 Apart from the
obvious ones such as foreign affairs and defence, this catalogue also
includes education and electricity services, which in some other
federations are under the regional authorities. Exclusive legislative
power is reserved for the central authorities in a further catalogue of
fifteen points (Article 121), such as labour relations and social
security, real estate and expropriations in the public interest.129 The
individual Emirates have jurisdiction over all matters which are not
assigned by the constitution to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
central authority (Article 122), but Articles 116 to 119, which form
Part Six (entitled “The Emirates”), do not give a comparable
catalogue of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the
individual Emirates. Yet the vague wording of these articles implies,
rather than describes, such powers by saying: “The exercise of rule
in each Emirate shall aim in particular at the maintenance of security
and order within its territories, the provision of public utilities for its
inhabitants and the raising of social and economic standards"
(Article 117), and “The member Emirates of the Union shall all work
for the co-ordination of the legislation in various fields with the
intention of unifying such legislation as far as possible” (Article 118,
Part One). The failure to list the powers of the individual Emirates is
consistent with the intention of the fathers of the constitution:
existing laws and well-established institutions in the Emirates were
guaranteed continued existence.
Forthcoming legislation in almost all matters that could be
anticipated, as well as the accompanying executive and judicial
institutions which could be expected to evolve, were assigned to the
central authorities in Articles 120-125. The authors of the consti­
tution could foresee the very obvious situation that in some Emirates,
notably Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and to some extent Sharjah, the existing
laws and regulations as well as the functioning government machi­
nery could and probably would remain barriers to the process of
unifying the public sector. The almost complete lack of legislation
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