The Central Bank of Oman (CBO) published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a new Regulation of the Returned Direct Debit and Cheques System that replaces the Regulation of the Returned Cheques System of 2007.
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.
Decree Monthly Digest is a summary of the most significant updates on Decree in the previous month.
Royal Decrees
Twelve royal decrees were issued in September, with the most significant being Royal Decree 62/2023 Amending Some Provisions of the Civil Aviation Law. Royal decrees were also issued establishing an embassy for the Sultanate of Oman in Australia, ratifying civil aviation agreements with Senegal and Belarus, and acceding to the Convention on the International Organization for Marine Aids to Navigation.
A new provision in the Labour Law that very few people are talking about is the new mechanism under Part Eight (Settlement of Collective Labour Disputes, Strike, and Closure) for resolving collective labour disputes, and its confusing reference to arbitration and the Law of Arbitration in Civil and Commercial Disputes.
The Capital Market Authority published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette the Regulation Governing Electronic Insurance Operations. This regulation introduces new additional approval requirements for insurance companies and brokers wishing to provide their services on the internet. For example, Bima.om will now be required to comply with this regulation.
Categories
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.
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.
Categories
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.
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.
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.
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.