Event envisions future of legislative system with the participation of 74 Dubai government entitiesgovernment entities
UAE: The second edition of ‘Legislative Week’ drew to a close amid widespread praise from leading experts and legal professionals working in government entities for the event’s contribution to enriching legal knowledge and spreading legislative awareness among the community. The event highlighted the importance of optimal investment in enhancing legal training and knowledge to develop and implement sustainable and balanced government legislation that is capable of supporting Dubai’s ambitious development plans.
The event was organized online by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Legislation Committee in the Emirate of Dubai (SLC) over a period of 5 days, bringing together top-level participants from 74 local government entities to explore the future of legislation and share insights on ways to ensure its sustainability and stability. The achievement of this goal is particularly important in light of multiplicity of government policies in the emirate in order to lay strong foundations of legal and legislative excellence, in line with the ongoing preparations for the next fifty years that will pave the way for sustainable development for future generations.
The 2020 edition of the Legislative Week featured ‘Legislative Lab: ‘Legislative Agility for Achieving Viability,’ which is an extremely important workshop, as it is an innovative and comprehensive system that is specifically designed to support the national strategy aimed at accommodating and integrating the technologies of the future. The Legislative Lab provides a safe experimental environment for future legislation that is flexible enough to constantly enhance the quality of life in Dubai. The initiative highlights several main areas, most notably ideas such as ‘sustainability of legislation is everyone’s responsibility,’ ‘skilled human resources for sustainable legislation’ and ‘envisioning the future of legislation.’
In line with SLC’s commitment to mobilize the potential of youth in support of the UAE’s ambitions, the latest edition of the ‘Legislative Week’ featured a series of training programs, awareness presentations and online workshops, with the participation of law students from the most prominent universities and colleges in the UAE. These included the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU), the Imam Malik College of Sharia and Law, the Dubai Police Academy, and the Al Ain University of Science and Technology. The online educational activities continued for two days and featured various sessions titled ‘Mortgage of Movable Assets without the Mortgagee Being Given Actual Possession’ and ‘Legislative Impact Assessment,’ serving as exceptional opportunities to enrich the knowledge and skill of young professionals in the legal and legislative fields, and to enable them to be ideal partners in driving the country’s growth and development.
H.E. Ahmad Saeed bin Meshar Al Muhairi, SLC Secretary General, explained that the latest edition of Legislative Week has succeeded once again in serving as an important knowledge and interactive platform to discuss the most important issues related to legislative excellence. Qualities such as flexibility and sustainability are much needed for this field, in addition to the ability to identify new opportunities that can contribute to legislative excellence, in line with Dubai’s future as a smart, integrated and a seamlessly interconnected city, he said.
He further pointed out that the event is highly significant as it establishes direct communication channels among government entities to develop a clear roadmap to update legislation in line with the digital transformation. These efforts are important given Dubai’s and the UAE’s pioneering roles as a global hub for the Fourth Industrial Revolution and advanced technological applications. Bin Meshar further indicated that the event’s discussions have successfully generated effective outcomes and solutions to the legal challenges stemming from technological advancements, especially in terms of information security, privacy, intellectual property, and other areas.
He added: “The latest edition of Legislative Week focused on spreading the legal and legislative culture among university students, in order to prepare upcoming generations to play pivotal roles in establishing future legislation that can support the development plans for the next 50 years. The awareness and educational presentations reflect our strong belief in investing in youth following the insightful vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. Therefore, the development of youth is a top priority because the future of the UAE is in their hands. In these presentations, we were keen to involve students in extensive discussions on ways to enhance the flexibility and sustainability of legislation, in response to our wise leadership’s call for everyone to participate in designing the Emirates of the future.”
He concluded: “The success of the Legislative Week 2020 prompts us to intensify our efforts to organize the event again next year to follow-up the implementation of the recommendations of the current edition in coordination with our strategic partners from government entities in Dubai and the UAE. We renew our commitment to supporting the development of flexible, proactive and sustainable legislation that can drive the growth and prosperity of vital and new sectors, while also ensuring the highest levels of living standards, prosperity, safety and happiness for everyone.”
The ‘Role of Government Policies in Achieving Stable and Quality Legislation,’ was one of the main topics of discussion during this year’s Legislative Week presentations. It highlighted the importance of government policies in ensuring legislative stability and enhancing the quality of legislation governing various areas of life, including the economy, the environment, social affairs, education and health. The presentations also emphasized the need to pass quality, efficient, effective and flexible legislation that enhances the principles of good governance, the rule of law and the sustainability of legislation and achieves the highest levels of integrity, transparency, fairness and equality. Furthermore, the discussions dealt with the concept of legislative stability, how to transform government policies into enforceable legislation, in addition to the relationship between the stability of government policies and legislation, and how to achieve legislative stability in light of the multiplicity of government policies, as well as the positive and negative sides of legislative stability.
As language is the main tool for legal professionals, the training program titled ‘Linguistic Skills for Legal Professionals’ was of great use to the participants and complemented the specialized legal workshops. This program featured the most important linguistic skills that a legal person must acquire to master effective and sound legal writing.
The Legislative Week 2020 also discussed a set of issues affecting flexibility and legislative sustainability. It was an ideal platform for exploring the best ways to develop flexible and sustainable legislation using a methodology based on upgrading the mechanisms of self-assessment by government entities for their implementation of legislation. As it is one of the most effective tools for legislative audit that is of great importance in laying the foundations for building a pioneering, transparent and reliable government that guarantees fair implementation and reliable legislation, thereby bringing happiness to the community and ensuring the well-being of society, in line with the goals of Dubai Plan 2021.
