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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Intel Update

Intel Update: December 2024

Decree Intel is a database of original Omani legal research material that provides explanatory notes, overviews of government entities, and summaries of Supreme Court cases and MJLA Fatwas.

Case Summary: Supreme Court (Civil Circuit) 293/2016 (Characteristics of Adhesion Contracts): In a dispute between a bank and a corporate client, the Supreme Court held that the standard terms and conditions of the contract signed between a bank and this corporate client do not fulfil the characteristics of an adhesion contract, and therefore these terms and conditions cannot be set aside on this ground.

Case Summary: Supreme Court (Civil Circuit) 64/2016 (Objection to Court Jurisdiction Over Dispute Subject to Arbitration Clause): In a contractual dispute over rent payments, the Supreme Court held that the Court of Appeal in Sohar cannot, at its own initiative, set aside the judgment of the Primary Court in Suwaiq on the basis that the court has no jurisdiction due to the existence of an arbitration clause in the contract if none of the parties to the dispute raised this as a defence.

The Ministry of Information: This is the entity responsible for disseminating information about the Sultanate of Oman and regulating media in the country.

The Ministry of Economy: This is the entity responsible for formulating the macro-economic policy of the state, approving the annual development budget of the government, and approving projects for the five-year plans of the government.

Categories
Law Updates

New Public Noise Control Regulation

The Environment Authority published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a new Regulation for Noise Control in the Public Environment that replaces an old regulation on the same topic from 1994.

The new regulation completely overhauls the framework for controlling noise generated by business operations in public places (such as construction, mining, and airports), creates a classification for noise levels for daytime vs nighttime without reference to working days and holidays, introduces new duties on project owners to take noise measures and carry out noise modelling as part of environmental impact studies, and sets new administrative penalties of up to 500 rials for those who violate the regulation.

It is worth noting that this regulation repeals the old Regulation on Noise Control in the Public Environment of 1994, but does not repeal the Regulation on Noise Control in the Work Environment of 1994, which continues to remain in force.

The new Regulation for Noise Control in the Public Environment enters into force tomorrow. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

Regulation for Noise Control in the Public Environment
Categories
Law Updates

New System for Signing Omani Government Contracts

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.

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Law Updates

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.

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Law Updates

New Data Sharing Requirements Under the National Records Law

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.

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Commentary

New Omani Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law Issued

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.

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Commentary

Global AI Regulation: The New European AI Convention

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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Announcements

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.

VISIT DECREE SAUDI ARABIA
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Commentary

Oman’s National Artificial Intelligence Policy

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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Announcements

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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