For example, when a member views the Personal Income Tax Law, a new Ask Lex button will appear on the corner of the page. The user can use this command to ask questions about the Personal Income Tax Law without having to query Decree’s entire database. This process is usually faster and can provide more accurate answers when the user needs information from a single specific item.

When Lex AI Spotlight is unable to find the answer in the currently viewed item, the user will be advised to use the full version of Lex AI.

Lex AI and Lex AI Spotlight are available through a bundle subscription to Decree. They are available for free for all Decree members on all subscription plans for the whole of the month of September.

You can try Lex AI Spotlight on most pages on Decree, including the Personal Income Tax Law, the Penal Law, the Personal Data Protection Law, and many more.

Lex AI generates its answers exclusively from Decree’s database of translated Omani legislation and case summaries while providing full citations and references for all answers generated. Using GPT-5, Lex AI now runs at a faster speed and provides significantly improved analysis of Decree’s content to answer user questions, summarise the law, and create compliance checklists.

Decree members with access to Lex AI can try the new and improved Lex AI on the link below:

While Lex AI is capable of generating compliance checklists, Decree Toolkits goes beyond this by providing a curated collection of easy to use checklists that are reviewed and verified by our legal team. Each toolkit provides key information regarding the application of the item in question along with a breakdown of the key obligations imposed and a highlight of potential fines for failing to comply. Decree Toolkits are also downloadable in Excel and adopt a structure commonly used by compliance practitioners in Oman, which should allow our users to download our checklists and customize them to work with their workflows.

When a Toolkit is available for a specific item on Decree, a new Toolkit button will be displayed on the page of the law or regulation in question:

It is also possible to browse all available Toolkits on the main Decree Toolkits page and also look them up using the standard Decree search.

Decree Toolkits is available through a bundle subscription to Decree. It is available for free for all Decree members on all subscription plans until the end of the month of July.

We are also launching today new automation tools for generating OLCS compliant citation. You can now use a Citation Assistant on the OLCS website to easily generate legislation, cases, and fatwas citations. A similar feature has also been added to the free Decree Chrome Extension to allow you to quickly generate citations directly from your browser toolbar.

You can view the OLCS and use our new tools on the link below:

Lex AI is built using state-of-the-art artificial intelligence technology to generate its answers exclusively from Decree’s database of translated Omani legislation and case summaries, and it provides citations and references for all answers generated.

Lex AI is available through a bundle subscription to Decree. It is available for free for all Decree members on all subscription plans for the whole of the month of May.

We highly encourage Decree members to try out Lex AI and use the rating buttons to evaluate the quality of the responses. We are going to use this feedback to review the performance of the model and make any necessary adjustments.

Riyadh Al-Balushi
CEO

The law that I found most interesting in the year 2024 was the National Records Law, a brand new law for Oman intended to facilitate the work of ROP’s National Record Centre. If this project succeeds, Oman should have a single data point for retrieving key Omani datasets in a manner that facilitates the creation of more reliable digital services in Oman. MTCIT’s Executive Regulation of the Personal Data Protection Law was also extremely important to finally enable everyone to attempt to comply with the Personal Data Protection Law (even though there is no evidence that the law is being implemented). A third legislative development, which hasn’t actually taken place yet, is the upcoming National Artificial Intelligence Policy that the MTCIT floated for public consultation this year, which will not be a legally binding document, but is an interesting attempt by Oman to regulate the use of AI.

The piece of legislation that I found most interesting in 2024 is Royal Decree 28/2024, which established the Omani Waqf Establishment. This is the first time a waqf establishment was created by royal decree, which I consider to be an indication of the formal realisation by the government that waqf can be used as a legitimate medium for both economic and philanthropic development in the country. While we always had a Ministry of Awqaf and Religious Affairs, the role of MARA in the area of waqf has appeared mostly to oversee the operation of waqf by other people. This new Omani Waqf Establishment has the mandate of actually investing awqaf and establishing companies with the aim of investing awqaf, which will hopefully professionalise the sector and take it to the next level.

Mohamed Al-Tai
COO

Mohammed Al-Farsi
Legal Associate

At the start of this year, I predicted that the Ministry of Labour would issue and update some of the labour regulations and decisions relating to the law, and even though we did not see new regulations relating to temporary work, part-time work, or remote work, the Ministry of Labour did issue 10 decisions and regulations covering a variety of labour issues such as the Procedures and Controls for Dealing with Private Sector Establishments that Violate the Provisions of the Labour Law and the Decisions Implementing It, the Rules for Settlement and Abandonment of Lawsuits for Crimes Punishable under the Labour Law, and the System of Complaints and Grievances. Some of these were revamps that were required to be aligned with the new Labour Law, but some were also new regulations for areas previously not governed under the old Labour Law such as Decision 730/2024 Regulating the Temporary Transfer of Non-Omani Manpower Between Private Sector Establishments. You can read all these interesting, and important, decisions by the Ministry of Labour on this link.

In my opinion, one of the most significant laws that were issued this year is the Media Law. The law completely redefined the framework for governing the media industry in Oman, reaffirmed media freedoms such as the freedom of opinion and expression, and removed the majority of restrictions that previously existed. To me, the developments brought by this new law are a positive step towards the realisation of the rights recognised by the Basic Statute of the State and the aspirations for the creation of a real media industry as suggested by article 6 of the law that encourages the media to convey its message with objectivity and honesty. The law was issued towards the end of the year, and the executive regulation of the law has not been issued yet. It would be extremely interesting to see how the executive regulation of this law would contribute to achieving the grand objectives of this new law.

Aram Al-Bahri
Legal Associate

The year 2025 is expected to have even bigger legal developments. To stay up to date with new laws as they come out, make sure that you follow Decree on LinkedIn, Instagram, and Bluesky. You can also subscribe to our free newsletter.

Royal Decrees

Seven royal decrees were issued last month with the most significant being the one ratifying the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. The remaining royal decrees relating to the ratification of air service agreements with Tunisia, Tanzania, and Georgia, the appointment of ambassadors, and a change to the mandates of the Ministry of Finance and the Ministry of Economy.

Ministerial Decisions

23 ministerial decisions were published in the Official Gazette during this month, with the most significant being MOCIIP’s Decision on the List of Activities That Are Prohibited to Be Practised by Foreign Investment, MOL’s Decision Governing the Practice of Some Professions, TRA’s Dispute Resolution Regulation and the Regulation Governing Cloud Computing and Date Centre Services, and CAA’s Regulation on the Protection of Passenger Rights.

Decree Intel

Decree Intel was updated with an overview of the Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority and an overview of Alternative Dispute Resolution, along with Case Summary: Supreme Court (Criminal Circuit): Contestation 210/2017 (Reliability of Translation Used in Trial) and Case Summary: Supreme Court (Labour Circuit) Contestation: 210/2017 (Consequences of Delaying Employee Disciplinary Measure).

Blog Updates

Our blog featured a post by Riyadh Al-Balushi titled “Global AI Regulation: The New European AI Convention“.

New Content

Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority: The Small and Medium Enterprises Development Authority (الهيئة العامة لتنمية المؤسسات الصغيرة والمتوسطة) is the entity responsible for promoting and supporting the growth of small and medium-sized enterprises as well as craft industries.

Overview of Alternative Dispute Resolution: This document provides an overview of the key legislation relating to alternative dispute resolution in Oman. 

Case Summary: Supreme Court (Criminal Circuit): Contestation 210/2017 (Reliability of Translation Used in Trial): The Supreme Court held that the issue of the reliability of a translation accepted by the Court of Appeal in the procedures of the trial is a substantive matter that cannot be contested before the Supreme Court.

Case Summary: Supreme Court (Labour Circuit) Contestation: 210/2017 (Consequences of Delaying Employee Disciplinary Measure): The Supreme Court held that the failure of the employer to impose a disciplinary punishment against an employee after the expiry of the deadlines stipulated by the Labour Law rendered the action taken by the employer against the violating employee illegal.

Royal Decrees

No royal decrees were issued last month.

Ministerial Decisions

Seven ministerial decisions were published in the Official Gazette during this month, with the most significant being MOL’s Decision on the Procedures and Controls for Dealing with Private Sector Establishments That Violate the Provisions of the Labour Law and the Decisions Implementing It, Decision on the Rules for Settlement and Abandonment of Lawsuits for Crimes Punishable under the Labour Law, and Decision on Suspension of the Issuance of Trading Permits for the Temporary Employment of Non-Omani Workers in Certain Professions, as well as the EA’s Decision Amending Some Provisions of the Regulation Governing Environmental Permits.

Decree Intel

Decree Intel was updated with overviews of the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Housing and Urban Planning, and National Centre for Statistics and Information, along with Case Summary: Supreme Court (Commercial Circuit) Contestation 380/2016 (Invalidation of Trade Mark Registration).

Blog Updates

Our blog featured a post by Riyadh Al-Balushi titled “Oman’s National Artificial Intelligence Policy”.