United Arab Emirates: where to read the law
The UAE publishes federal legislation in force through an official bilingual portal, which is unusual and genuinely good. What makes UAE research distinctive is that the DIFC and ADGM are common-law jurisdictions inside a civil-law state, with their own legislation and their own courts publishing full English-language judgments — so the first question in any UAE matter is which of the three systems applies. Emirate-level legislation is a fourth layer and is published less consistently.
This is a directory, not a summary of the law. Nothing here tells you what a rule says - it tells you where the authoritative text lives so you can read it yourself. Links last checked .
1 of these sources did not answer an automated check. They are canonical and they open in a normal browser - the note on each says which case it is.
The sources
- UAE Legislation portalPrimary lawFederal legislation in force, English and Arabic, published by the UAE government.Sits behind a Cloudflare challenge — opens fine in a normal browser, blocks automated checks.
- DIFC CourtsCourtsEnglish-language common-law court in Dubai. Judgments and rules published in full.
- DIFC Courts — judgments and ordersCourtsThe judgments themselves, searchable, free, in English.
- Abu Dhabi Global MarketPrimary lawADGM's own legislation, regulations and court rules — the second common-law zone, and a separate body of law from the DIFC's.
- Ministry of JusticePrimary lawThe federal ministry: courts, notarisation, and the services layer around them.
- u.ae — the official UAE portalPrimary lawThe government's own plain-language explanation of federal services and which authority owns what.
- Library of Congress — UAE legal research guideResearch guideHow the federal, emirate and free-zone layers relate, written for a foreign researcher.