Decree Blog
Last month, the Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology (MTCIT) issued Oman’s first policy for governing the use of artificial intelligence (AI) systems. This policy was issued in the form of a circular, and therefore it is not a strictly binding legal document published in the Official Gazette.
We received a lot of feedback from the use of Lex AI by the members of Decree over the past couple of weeks, and this enabled us to better understand how our members use the service and the kind of answers they expect. Based on this feedback, we made several changes to Lex AI:
– Lex AI is now fully conversational and appears as a chat thread to make it easier for the user to continue conversing with Lex. Even though the original version of Lex had conversational capabilities, the tool behaved more as a single question single answer tool.
– Lex AI question box now allows you to insert a larger amount of text that appears as a paragraph block. The original version of Lex accepted a smaller amount of text that was limited to a single line in the search box.
– Lex AI now lets you copy the text using a share button under each response message. This is useful for individuals who need to use the answers generated by Lex.
– To improve the quality of the answers, Lex by default will not include in its analysis any repealed law. If the user wishes for repealed laws to be considered, the user would have to check a new box for this above the chat box message. This is usually necessary for comparing differences between an old and a new law.
– We also made some technical improvements to the logic of Lex to improve the quality of the answers.
Decree members on all membership bundles have free access to Lex AI until the end of May. If you have not used it until now, we highly encourage you to do so. Please make sure to use the vote buttons to help us improve the service.
The constitution of the Sultanate of Oman, formally known as the Basic Statute of the State, is the supreme legislative document in the country. It governs the operation of the institutions of the state and determines the relationship of the states with all individuals while providing structure and clarity on the operation of the government. The Basic Statute of the State was issued by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos through Royal Decree 101/96 in the year 1996 as a gift to the people of Oman. Since then, it was amended twice, in 2011 and 2021. This blog post will outline the status of the legal system before 1996, before outlining the changes made to the Basic Statute of the State throughout the years.
Book Two of the Basic Statute of the State, i.e. the Omani constitution, lays down the foundation for how the state functions as well as its main priorities. While the Basic Statute of the State as a whole is rich in constitutional guidance, Book Two is especially notable for how it comprehensively maps out the principles that shape Oman’s political, economic, social, and cultural trajectory. This blog post highlights the key principles found in this extremely important part of the Omani constitution.
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a new Regulation Governing International Telecommunications Cables that governs the laying, maintenance, repair, and surveying of subsea cables in Omani territorial waters.
We are delighted to launch Lex AI—Decree’s artificial intelligence legal research assistant. This tool enables Decree members to use natural language to ask legal questions, generate summaries, create compliance checklists, and carry out a variety of other legal tasks.
The new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law entered into force earlier this month and has brought with it substantial changes to the way the legal profession operates in Oman. One of these key changes requires advocates to complete different sets of exams and continuous development programmes to move up the rolls of advocates for different court levels.
A new Electronic Transactions Law was issued last week, repealing the Electronic Transactions Law of 2008 and carefully refining the scope to which electronic transactions can be relied upon in Oman.
The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs published the executive regulation of the new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette. This new regulation introduces further controls on the practice of the legal profession in Oman and provides implementation details for the Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law.
The new Financial Law was published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette repealing the Financial Law of 1998.