Page 342 - UAE Truncal States
P. 342

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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