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: September 2023

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

New Content

– Overview of the Oman Commercial Arbitration Centre: The Oman Commercial Arbitration Centre (مركز عمان للتحكيم التجاري) is an Omani public-interest private entity established in 2018. It provides arbitration, mediation, and conciliation services.

– Overview of the Legislative Process in Oman: This document provides an overview of the process for issuing primary legislation (laws) and secondary legislation (regulations) in Oman. Even though the legislative process in Oman is formal and systematic, it is not actually outlined in full in any single legal instrument. The information on this page is collected through personal engagements with the Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs and from explanatory material published in Arabic on its website.

– Overview of Treaties in Oman: The Omani legal system grants treaties the power of law upon their ratification, making them extremely important. This document will provide an overview of treaties, the process under the Omani legal system for joining a treaty, and a highlight of some of the most important treaties that Oman routinely ratifies.

– Fatwa Summary: MJLA Fatwa 192717255: The Ministry of Justice and Legal Affairs (MJLA) deemed that the contractor had no rights under a contract it signed with the government due to the failure to comply with the requirements of Royal Decree 48/76 regarding the Signing of Foreign and Domestic Financial Transactions. The MJLA noted in its fatwa that the contractor can take legal action against individuals in their personal capacity whose actions resulted in the contractor suffering harm.

Updated Content

– Overview of the Court System in Oman: This document was updated to reflected the changes made by Royal Decree 63/2023.

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Law Updates

The Tender Board Issues Consolidated Procurement Regulation

The Tender Board published in today’s issue of the Official Gazette a brand new Regulation Governing Consolidated Procurement that requires government entities subject to the Tender Law to procure certain works and services through a new consolidated procurement procedure. The aim of this new procedure is to optimise government spending by obtaining better rates for routine works and services through consolidated purchases instead of procuring them individually by each government entity in an ad hoc manner.

Continue reading “The Tender Board Issues Consolidated Procurement Regulation”
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Law Updates

MOCIIP Issues E-Commerce Regulation

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion (MOCIIP) published a new Governance Regulation for Electronic Commerce in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette to regulate online stores.

Continue reading “MOCIIP Issues E-Commerce Regulation”
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Monthly Digest

Decree Monthly Digest – August 2023

Decree Monthly Digest is a summary of the most significant updates on Decree in the previous month.

Decree Intel

Decree Intel was launched providing explanatory notes, overviews of government entities, and summaries of Supreme Court cases and MJLA Fatwas to Decree subscribers. You can learn more about this in our announcement post.

Royal Decrees

No royal decrees were published in the Official Gazette in the month of August.

Ministerial Decisions

Five ministerial decisions were published in the Official Gazette during this month, with the most significant ones being MEM’s Amendment to the Executive Regulation of the Mining Law, MOH’s decision Specifying Medicines that May be Dispensed without a Prescription, EA’s Regulation on Environmental Permits, and SMEDA’s new SME Financing Regulation.

Events

Applications are still open for the Middle East School on Internet Governance co-hosted by Decree.

Blog Updates

Our blog featured two posts by Mohammed Al-Farsi titled “New Omani Labour Law: 5 Employee Rights and 5 Employer Rights” and “Banned Barbie: Censorship Law in Oman“, along with a guest post by Duniya Al-Nabhani titled “Protection of the Rights of the Disabled under Omani Law“, a guest post by Bassam Al-Balushi titled “Biotechnology: Ethical Dilemma and Financial Issues“, a guest post by Adeeb Al-Mazroui titled “Smart Homes and Privacy Risks“, and a guest post by Faris Al-Said titled “Ranked Choice Voting: A Missed Opportunity in the New Shura Elections Law“.

Other News

Decree signed an MOU with the Omani Lawyers Association to provide special subscription rates for small and medium Omani law firms.

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Law Updates

SMEDA Issues New SME Financing Regulation

The Small and Medium Enterprise Development Authority (SMEDA) published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a new SME Financing Regulation that replaces the SME Financing Regulation of 2022.

Continue reading “SMEDA Issues New SME Financing Regulation”
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Announcements

Applications Open for the Middle East School on Internet Governance in Muscat

We are delighted to announce that Decree will be co-hosting, along with Sultan Qaboos University, the Middle East School on Internet Governance (MEAC-SIG). This event is organised by ICANN, the Internet Society, and RIPE NCC. It will take place in Muscat for the very first time in December 2023.

MEAC-SIG is a unique hybrid course on internet governance targeting lawyers, techies, and policymakers from various sectors including the government, private sector, academia, the technical community, and civil society. It covers a range of internet governance topics, encompassing both policy and technical aspects. In addition to providing an overview of how the internet functions, this year’s MEAC-SIG will also cover geopolitics and internet governance, internet public policy, internet fragmentation, human rights, cybersecurity and encryption, privacy and data protection, as well as content regulation.

MEAC-SIG this year will be conducted in a hybrid format where online sessions will be conducted in October and November 2023, followed by a 3-day in-person event in Muscat in December where participants who successfully complete the online course from across the Middle East and adjoining countries will come to Muscat.

MEAC-SIG will be conducted exclusively in English.

We are delighted to have contributed to bringing this exceptional course to Oman, and hope to see many of you register to participate in this event.

The participants of the programme will be selected on the basis of their background with a view to maximizing the diversity of the participants. Only individuals who successfully complete the online component of the course will receive invitations to attend the offline component taking place in December.

Applications for MEAC-SIG will close on 3 September 2023. For more information and the application link, please visit the MEAC-SIG website.

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Announcements

Launching Decree Intel

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.

Continue reading “Launching Decree Intel”
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Law Updates

New Grounds for Terminating Employment Under Omani Labour Law

The long-awaited new Omani Labour Law is finally out. The new law makes many substantive changes to the way employment is regulated: From the scope of its application and employee rights, to collective bargaining and employment dispute resolution. The law was issued only a few hours ago, and it will take everyone a bit of time to fully digest the extent of the changes introduced by this law.

Continue reading “New Grounds for Terminating Employment Under Omani Labour Law”
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Commentary

Closed Education: Copyright Provisions in the Omani School Education Law

The School Education Law that was issued last month is a substantive piece of legislation that covers all aspects of school education: from the establishment of schools and the admission of students, to the rights and duties of faculty staff. An interesting provision in this key Omani law is found in article 77 stipulating that the Ministry of Education owns copyright over the books and curriculums prepared by the ministry. This is a deviation from article 4(a) of the Copyright and Neighbouring Rights Law which excludes official government documents from copyright protection. This new provision in article 77 of the School Education Law will limit the ability of teachers, students, and parents to fully utilise these textbooks without providing any benefits to the Ministry of Education.

Continue reading “Closed Education: Copyright Provisions in the Omani School Education Law”
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Law Updates

MOCIIP Issues Decision to Simplify Investor Procedures

The Ministry of Commerce, Industry, and Investment Promotion issued a new decision in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette that aims to simplify investment procedures and provide facilities to Omani and non-Omani investors by providing an integrated system for obtaining all approvals, permits, and licences for any investment project through the Investment Services Centre in the new Invest in Oman Lounge.

Under this new integrated system, it will be possible to obtain all government approvals, permits, and licences, irrespective of the entity from whom the approval, permit, or licence is required, from the Investment Services Centre. Government entities will be required to provide representative staff available at the Investment Services Centre with the authority to issue such approvals, permits, and licences.

This new decision has entered into force today, but it is not clear when exactly the actual integrated services will be ready to be offered at the Invest in Oman Lounge.

You can read the decision in full in English on the link below:

Ministerial Decision 361/2023 regarding the Simplification of Investment Procedures and Investor Facilitation