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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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