UAE courts to enforce UK judgements over civil, financial, marital matters

The decision is already in effect, avoiding the need to be drafted into law.

The resolution was issued last week, and called for “relevant legal actions” to be taken to impose rulings made in English courts on request.

UAE Ministry of Justice’s director of the international cooperation department, Judge Abdul Rahman Murad Al Bloushi issued the letter to Dubai courts’ director-general regarding the enforcement, on September 13, referring the Lenkor Energy Trading DMCC v Puri (2020) EWHC 75 (QB) case.

The case was about a bounced cheque involving a British citizen.

According to the Associated Press (AP), the UAE had previously not enforced British rulings due to what it called a lack of reciprocity, as the UK courts were reluctant to enforce UAE-issued judgements.

“Before the Lenkor case, British courts were not in the practice of enforcing Dubai court judgements and therefore UAE courts took that as a reason not to enforce the same rules,” the agency said.

“After the new decision … the UAE will not be a safe haven for anyone trying to smuggle their money,” said Hassan Elhais, legal consultant at Alrowad Advocates told AP, adding “if a person was sentenced in a civil case in the UK and they fled to the UAE, they were previously able to keep their money without it being confiscated, their money was protected.”

UAE authorities and banking entities have been seeking to remove the country from the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) grey list. This latest announcement could be another step towards the country’s removal.

Recently, the UAE has also arrested those wanted for major crimes.

These include “British national Sanjay Shah who is accused of a $1.7 billion tax fraud scheme in Denmark, and two of the Gupta brothers from South Africa, wanted over allegedly looting state money with former President Jacob Zuma,” AP reported.