We are delighted to announce today the launch of Decree Intel—a database of original Omani legal research material developed in-house by Decree that provides explanatory notes, overview of government entities, and summaries of Supreme Court cases and MJLA Fatwas.
Decree Intel is a database of Omani legal research material developed in-house by our team.
EXPLANATORY
NOTES
Introductions to basic features of the Omani legal system, key laws, and significant areas of regulation.
GOVERNMENT ENTITIES OVERVIEW
Mandate highlights, historical background, leadership details, and associated entities of key government entities.
CASES AND FATWAS SUMMARIES
Summaries of significant Supreme Court judgments and Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs Fatwas.
Decree Intel is made for practitioners researching information beyond the black letter of the law to further understand the Omani legal system or to find information to support arguments made in a project they are working on.
For example, our Overview of the Court System in Oman outlines the constitutional background of the judiciary, the structure of the court system, the organisational chart of the Supreme Judicial Council, and the current key figures in the Omani judiciary. The same Intel also provides details of the Military Judiciary and legacy entities associated with the judiciary, in addition to a list of the key laws in the field of the judiciary and litigation that a practitioner needs to be aware of.
In designing the structure of our case and Fatwa summaries we focused on simplicity in terms of language, structure, and length to make the document easy to read and understand. Each case summary has a one-paragraph summary at the top of the Intel, followed by the summary of the facts, the procedural history, the actual court judgment, and the conclusion. The fatwa Intel follows a similar structure that starts off with a one-paragraph summary, followed by the facts, the fatwa itself, and the conclusion.
All of our Intel is in text and fully searchable, which means that Decree users will be able to search for specific terms, such as “Labour Law” or “Arbitration” and then filter the results to display all Intel that covers these topics.
Case and Fatwa Summaries
We obtain our case and fatwa summaries from the books published by the Supreme Court and the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs. Case summaries are self-explanatory. Fatwas on the other hand are official interpretations issued by the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs in response to queries submitted to it by other government entities in respect to specific incidents.
Decree Intel is produced in-house by our team, and we do not currently accept contributions from members of the public. If you would like to contribute to our website, we would be happy to publish your contributions as guest posts on the Decree Blog.
At launch, Decree Intel has a limited amount of content, and we plan on adding more Intel on a monthly basis. If you have any thoughts on our format, suggestions on how to improve our Intel, or ideas and suggestions on what should be included in the Intel, please feel free to get in touch with us.
Decree Intel is available for Decree users as part of the standard Decree subscription without any additional charges.