United Arab Emirates Executive order Enacted 2022-10-03

Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 (Personal Status for Non-Muslims)

المرسوم بقانون اتحادي رقم 41 لسنة 2022

Summary

Creates a parallel civil personal-status regime for non-Muslims resident in the UAE — civil marriage, equal-share inheritance, joint custody, no-fault divorce. Applies across all seven emirates. The Sharia-based personal-status code continues to govern Muslims by default.

Impact

A signature MBZ-era reform positioning the UAE as the Gulf's most legally permissive environment for expatriates and non-Muslim residents. Civil marriage at the UAE Court of First Instance has been widely used since the law took effect. Frequently cited as a soft-power instrument in UAE competition with Saudi Arabia.

Sources

official uaelegislation.gov.ae
www.bakermckenzie.com — Baker McKenzie analysis, November 2022

Permalink https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ae-personal-status-non-muslims-2022

How to cite

This is a citation for the legislation itself — credited to Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates and dated to its 2022 introduction. Tayyar is the retrieval surface, not the author. A separate "Retrieved via" line records that you accessed it through this dataset.

In-text: (Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates, 2022)

APA 7Institutional author

Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates. (2022). Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 (Personal Status for Non-Muslims) [Legislation]. https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1773. Retrieved via Tayyar (https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ae-personal-status-non-muslims-2022) on June 21, 2026.

Chicago author-dateCommon in political-science journals

Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates. 2022. “Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 (Personal Status for Non-Muslims).” Legislation. https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1773. Retrieved via Tayyar, June 21, 2026.

BibTeXLaTeX / Zotero / reference managers

@misc{tayyar-bill-ae-personal-status-non-muslims-2022,
  title     = {{Federal Decree-Law 41 of 2022 (Personal Status for Non-Muslims)}},
  author    = {{Federal National Council of the United Arab Emirates}},
  year      = {2022},
  date      = {2022-10-03},
  type      = {Legislation},
  url       = {https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1773},
  urldate   = {2026-06-21},
  note      = {Retrieved via Tayyar (https://tarekgara.com/tayyar/bills/ae-personal-status-non-muslims-2022) on June 21, 2026}
}