A royal decree was issued last week promulgating a new System of Signing Contracts and Financial Commitments of the State that repeals Royal Decree 48/76 regarding the Signing of Foreign and Domestic Financial Transactions and sets new formalities for signing government contracts.
Author: Riyadh Al-Balushi
Riyadh is the CEO at Decree. Prior to co-founding Decree, Riyadh worked for over 16 years of as a lawyer for the government of Oman. His areas of subject matter expertise include public international law, technology law, and intellectual property. He holds an LLB from the University of Cardiff, an LLM in IT and Commerce from Southampton University, and a PhD from SOAS, University of London. Riyadh is also a co-founder of Open Data Oman.
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New Omani Media Law Issued
His Majesty issued earlier this week a royal decree promulgating a new Media Law that overhauls the legal framework for the dissemination of media through all mediums including newspapers, radio and TV channels, cinemas, and physical artwork and medium, setting unified rules for all forms of media irrespective of the platform.
His Majesty issued yesterday a new law called the National Records Law that requires all government entities, government-owned companies, and certain private companies to directly integrate with Royal Oman Police to store the data that ROP deems required to maintain a newly created national records database. If an entity is not able to directly integrate with ROP to electronically provide the data that ROP requests, the entity is required to provide the data to ROP using traditional means. In both cases, it is not permitted to require ROP to pay any fees for the cost of integration or transfer of the requested data.
The new Omani Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law was promulgated two days ago, and it introduces major changes to the regulation of the legal profession in Oman. The new law requires advocates to pass written exams to qualify to appear before the different levels of Omani courts, and permits international law firms to open legal consultancy offices in Oman without a local Omani partner, among many other significant changes. This new law will enter into force after six months.
Earlier this month, the Council of Europe adopted a new legally binding international agreement on AI called the Council of Europe Framework Convention on Artificial Intelligence and Human Rights, Democracy and the Rule of Law that was signed by the EU, the UK, Norway, the US, and others. This convention is the first legally binding multilateral instrument governing artificial intelligence and is intended to create a legal framework for ensuring that all activities within the AI lifecycle respect human rights, democracy, and the rule of law.
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Introducing: Decree Saudi Arabia
We are launching today the free beta version of Decree Saudi Arabia. This version of Decree offers full-text of English-translated Saudi royal decrees, laws, ministerial decisions, and other content published in Umm Al-Qura Newspaper, i.e. the Saudi official gazette, on a weekly basis.
We are still in the early stages of building the English database of Decree Saudi Arabia, and we welcome feedback from our users regarding items from the backlog of Saudi legislation that they would like to see translated on Decree.
Similar to the Omani version of Decree, Decree Saudi Arabia is linked with Qanoon Saudi Arabia, and it is possible to use the English website to locate legislation items even if they are not translated so that the user can view the original document or use Google translate to access the document.
Decree Saudi Arabia also has its own free weekly newsletter that notifies users of the contents of new issues of Umm Al-Qura.
Please note that the login details of Decree.om are NOT linked with the login details of Decree Saudi Arabia. Upon the official launch of the service, both services will be accessible using a unified access system.
Decree Saudi Arabia is available free of charge until the end of the year. It will be available as an add-on to Decree.om customers.
You can stay up to date with Decree Saudi Arabia by following our Saudi LinkedIn account.
The Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology (MTCIT) recently announced a public consultation regarding a draft National Artificial Intelligence Policy. This draft policy suggests that the MTCIT does not wish to impose any serious restrictions on the ability to use AI systems in Oman as the policy will not be a legally binding document and will not impose any concrete obligations on the providers or deployers of AI systems in Oman. This is a reasonable approach for the MTCIT to take as the technology of AI is still developing and imposing unreasonable restrictions at this stage might deprive Omani society of the ability to experiment with and explore the possibilities offered by AI.
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Introducing: Risk Watchlist
Decree Risk has become a valuable resource for organisations dealing with large numbers of small and medium Omani enterprises, such as utility companies and banks, who need to submit liquidation claims for unpaid bills and or make an objection to the government to block a legal transformation when any of these small and medium enterprises enter into liquidation or attempt to undergo a legal transformation.
Today, we are taking Decree Risk to the next level by announcing Risk Watchlist—a tool that allows organisations to monitor future risk incidents by adding the CR number of a target company on the Risk Watchlist to receive immediate alerts when any of these target companies appear in a risk announcement.
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New Omani Waqf Establishment Formed
This week’s issue of the Official Gazette included the full text of Royal Decree 28/2024 Establishing the Omani Waqf Establishment and Promulgating Its System, which is a brand new government entity responsible for managing and investing waqf as well as the treasury, known as Bait Al-Mal, of the Ministry of Endowments and Religious Affairs.
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EU AI Act: Implications for Oman
Late last month, the EU formally adopted the EU AI Act, the first comprehensive and legally binding AI framework adopted anywhere in the world. Somewhat like the GDPR, the EU AI Act has extraterritorial application, and it is likely for this act to become the international legislative standard that countries around the world replicate when developing their AI legal frameworks.