Page 400 - UAE Truncal States

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Chapter Nino
The Formation of the Federation
Important as the role of these two governments
was for lh
ot the constitution, it was possibly oven more significant e genesi s While the centralistic tendencies had only qualified success in
1,'e absent; haying had ample demon,ol the
once they practice, they featured prominently in the text of the constitution.127
disagreement between these two Slates, the room for Part Seven (Articles 120-125) deals directly with the balance of
governments
Trucial Slates suddenly appreciated the of the centralistic and federalistic elements and is entitled “Distribution of
common ground which had legislative, executive and international jurisdiction between the
^ZViiheTiove TxTreme positions taken so often by either Qatar
Union and the Emirates”. Article 120 contains a catalogue of
nineteen matters for which the central authorities shall have
Rahrain thus eventually turned into catalysts for a relatively
°r t cc final operation of constitution-making, during which each of exclusive legislative as well as executive powers.128 Apart from the
C ett EmiL* sacrificed some treasured yiews. Thus with obvious ones such as foreign affairs and defence, this catalogue also
1 \ oc most of which had already been discussed during the includes education and electricity services, which in some other
■
few chang , draft which had last been reviewed in full federations are under the regional authorities. Exclusive legislative
power is reserved for the central authorities in a further catalogue of
dindntUhemeeting of the nine Deputy Rulers in Octeber «70b»m
fifteen points (Article 121), such as labour relations and social
the constitution of the UAE. security, real estate and expropriations in the public interest.129 The
individual Emirates have jurisdiction over all matters which are not
Centralistic and federalistic elements assigned by the constitution to the exclusive jurisdiction of the
It is not by chance that the Arabic name of the new State became the central authority (Article 122), hut Articles 116 to 119, which form
rather more active derivation of the root wahcicla, by calling it davvlah Part Six (entitled “The Emirates”), do not give a comparable
oi imarat al 'arabJyah al muttahidah (United Arab Emirates).- catalogue of the legislative, executive and judicial powers of the
>i
- , e federation of the nine had been called ittihad al imarat al individual Emirates. Yet the vague wording of these articles implies,
arahiyah126 Union of Arab Emirates. This change of emphasis, rather than describes, such powers by saying: “The exercise of rule
which helped to tilt the balance further towards a more unified, if not in each Emirate shall aim in particular at the maintenance of security
even a more centralised State than that envisaged earlier, was in and order within its territories, the provision of public utilities for its
keeping with the concepts which were being developed at the time by inhabitants and the raising of social and economic standards”
citizens who had become intimate advisers to the Rulers in Abu (Article 117), and “The member Emirates of the Union shall all work
Dhabi, and Dubai, particularly H.E. Ahmad Khalifah Suwaidi and for the co-ordination of the legislation in various fields with the
intention of unifying such legislation as far as possible” (Article 118,
H.E. Mahdi al Tajir, who had taken over most of the responsibility for
Part One). The failure to list the powers of the individual Emirates is
the finalisation of the federation talks, and who were then given
consistent with the intention of the fathers of the
important positions in the new State, which they had helped tocreate. constitution:
In their view, the new State had more chance of consolidating itself the existing laws and well-established institutions in the Emirates were
more it played down the individuality of the Emirates and strength­ guaranteed continued existence.
Forthcoming legislation in almost all matters that cou e
ened the hand of the central authorities. It was difficult to administer
anticipated, as well as the accompanying executive and ju icia
shaikhdoms of such different sizes and stages of development from one
ted institutions which could be expected to evolve, were assigned to the
centre during the first few years of the nascent State. This preven central authorities in Articles 120-125. The authors of the consti­
over-enthusiastic ad hoc unification which could have suffocate
tution could foresee the very obvious situation that in some Emirates,
some of the enthusiasm for the federation. The realities of politicaU'J
notably Dubai, Abu Dhabi, and to some extent Sharjah, the existing
in the UAE did not encourage rapid unification in every aSPec*!^s laws and regulations as well as the functioning government machi­
this helped to maintain the integrity of the various local systems. It^
nery could and probably would
eventually realised that these systems still had a very valuable ro unifying the public remain barriers to the process of ;
sector. The almost complete lack of legislation
play because of their immediate proximity to the citizen.
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372