– Lex AI is now fully conversational and appears as a chat thread to make it easier for the user to continue conversing with Lex. Even though the original version of Lex had conversational capabilities, the tool behaved more as a single question single answer tool.

– Lex AI question box now allows you to insert a larger amount of text that appears as a paragraph block. The original version of Lex accepted a smaller amount of text that was limited to a single line in the search box.

– Lex AI now lets you copy the text using a share button under each response message. This is useful for individuals who need to use the answers generated by Lex.

– To improve the quality of the answers, Lex by default will not include in its analysis any repealed law. If the user wishes for repealed laws to be considered, the user would have to check a new box for this above the chat box message. This is usually necessary for comparing differences between an old and a new law.

– We also made some technical improvements to the logic of Lex to improve the quality of the answers.

Decree members on all membership bundles have free access to Lex AI until the end of May. If you have not used it until now, we highly encourage you to do so. Please make sure to use the vote buttons to help us improve the service.

The constitution of the Sultanate of Oman, formally known as the Basic Statute of the State, is the supreme legislative document in the country. It governs the operation of the institutions of the state and determines the relationship of the states with all individuals while providing structure and clarity on the operation of the government. The Basic Statute of the State was issued by His Majesty Sultan Qaboos through Royal Decree 101/96 in the year 1996 as a gift to the people of Oman. Since then, it was amended twice, in 2011 and 2021. This blog post will outline the status of the legal system before 1996, before outlining the changes made to the Basic Statute of the State throughout the years.

Legal System Pre 1996

Prior to the issuance of the Basic Statute of the State in 1996, Oman had a sophisticated and codified legal system that started from the accession of Sultan Qaboos into power in 1970, including legal instruments that governed the operation of the government, an elected Shura Council, and a robust court system. However, Oman did not have a single comprehensive legal system that clearly determined the duties of the Sultan, the Council of Ministers, and the duties and responsibilities of the state and the citizens.

The Basic Statute of the State of 1996

The Basic Statute of the State was issued as the first Omani constitution by Royal Decree 101/96. This document declared Oman as an independent Arab state, affirmed Islam as the religion of the land, and stipulated that Arabic is the official language of the state. It set the rules for accession through the secret will system, defined the concept of separation of powers within the Omani context, and determined the rules of the Sultan, the duties of the state, and the rights and responsibilities of citizens, among many other constitutional matters.

The First Amendment of the Omani Constitution

Sultan Qaboos amended the Basic Statute of the State only once in the year 2011 as a response to the events of the Arab Spring. The amendments that were made were precise and specific, and they strengthened the powers of the Council of Oman, i.e. the Omani parliament, by enhancing its oversight powers over the legislative process and monitoring government performance.

Modernising the Constitution in 2021

Following his accession in 2020, Sultan Haitham issued a new Basic Statute of the State by Royal Decree 6/2021 which retained an extremely similar structure to the Basic Statute of the State of 1996, but made significant changes to the succession process by establishing a legal framework for the appointment of a crown prince and removing the secret will mechanism that was found in the original Basic Statute of the State.

Conclusion

The Basic Statute of the State marked a major milestone in Oman’s modern history, establishing the foundation of structured and stable governance. Since its establishment in 1996, through the amendments made in 2011, and the modernisation in 2021 it has evolved to meet the demands of the Sultanate of Oman and continues to be an essential component of the country’s development.

You can read the Basic Statute of the State in full in English free of charge on the link below:

Written by:

Sara Al-Badi

Sara is a legal intern at Decree. She has previously interned in the Public Prosecution and in private practice. She is interested in commercial and corporate law. She holds an LLB from Cardiff University.

Book Two of the Basic Statute of the State is divided into four chapters: Political Principles (article 13), Economic Principles (article 14), Social Principles (article 15), and Cultural Principles (article 16). These articles provide a comprehensive framework for governing the internal and external duties of the state, its role in ensuring welfare and justice, and its responsibility to promote education, culture, and heritage.

Article 13: Political Principles

The political foundation of the Sultanate of Oman is rooted in the preservation of sovereignty, security, and independence. This article outlines the duty of the state to safeguard its stability and uphold its statehood. Furthermore, it emphasises foreign policy grounded in mutual respect, non-interference, and compliance with international charters and treaties. Importantly, it calls for governance systems based on shura, derived from islamic sharia and omani values, while endorsing modern administrative practices that ensure justice and equality for all citizens.

Article 14: Economic Principles

This article defines the economic visions of the state. It stipulates that the State guarantees economic freedom within a framework of social justice, where public and private sectors cooperate for development. This article also prescribes that the state retains ownership of natural resources and is mandated to manage them in line with public interest and the law, that the state is meant to encourage investment, regulate savings and credit, and protect both public and private property, among other economic duties.

Article 15: Social Principles

Justice, equality, and opportunity are enshrined as pillars of society. Article 15 highlights the significance of national unity and family values while requiring the state to guarantee equality between women and men, and to provide care for children, youth, and the disabled. Social security, emergency aid, and healthcare are legal guarantees, as is the state’s role in environmental protection. Article 15 also affirms “work” as a right and an honour, and stipulates that no citizen may be forced into employment except by law under specific conditions.

Article 16: Cultural Principles

Education is identified by article 16 as a fundamental right, with objectives including the development of national identity, scientific thinking, and civic values. According to this article, primary education must be made compulsory, while higher education is to made accessible based on merit. The state promotes literacy, supports scientific research, and guarantees the independence of academic institutions.

Conclusion

Book Two of the Basic Statute does more than provide aspirational goals; it sets binding constitutional standards that define Oman’s governance model. These provisions offer a robust and interlinked framework for how the state must function, interact with its citizens, and position itself in the international community. The articles reflect a clear legal intent: to build a just, stable, and forward-looking society rooted in Omani identity and Islamic values, yet open to modern and global engagement.

You can read the Basic Statute of the State in full in English free of charge on the link below:

Written by:

Zainab Al-Lawati

Zainab is a legal intern at Decree. She has previously interned in various sectors including the government, private practice, the banking sector, and the energy sector. She is interested in commercial and corporate law. She holds an LLB from the University of Bristol.

Subsea cables are fundamental to the operation of the global internet as they connect continents and allow data to be exchanged between them at high speeds. Oman plays a critical role in this industry due to its strategic location on the Indian Ocean, making it a potential hub for internet connection between South Asia, the Arabian Peninsula, and East Africa. Oman also has the only subsea cable connecting the GCC to Australia—a critical piece of digital infrastructure for the digital industry in both regions.

Prior to this new Regulation Governing International Telecommunications Cables issued by the TRA, Oman did not have a formal legal framework for governing the subsea cable industry. The new regulation stipulates that any company can apply for the approval of the TRA to install a subsea cable. If the application is approved, the applicant must pay a fee of 200,000 Rial Omani for a 15-year permit. In certain cases, the TRA may make an exemption for the payment of this fee if the subsea cable is connected to an international cable landing station or terrestrial connection station.

Subsea cable service providers are now also required to obtain approval to maintain, repair, and survey subsea cables in Omani waters. The fee for obtaining this approval is 500 Rial Omani. Holders of licences to provide international fixed public telecommunications are exempt from the payment of this fee.

In addition to outlining the process for obtaining approvals, the regulation also sets out obligations and prohibitions associated with the laying, maintenance, repair, and survey of subsea cable, as well as the penalties for violating the regulation.

The Regulation Governing International Telecommunications Cables has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English 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.

The system sets the overall framework for the training programme and specifies that the MJLA might conduct this training programme online or offline. The training programme must be completed within a period that does not exceed six months, and the overall score is based on attendance (10%), active participation in the sessions (20%), and exam results (70%). Trainees are required to achieve an overall score of 70% to pass the programme.

The actual specifics of the content of the programme or the nature of the exams are not mentioned in the system.

It is also worth noting that this system only relates to the training of trainee advocates and government officers doing litigation work and does not cover the continuous education requirements for advocates in the upper rolls.

This training system has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

Oman had its first Electronic Transactions Law in 2008, which was based on model laws developed by the UNCITRAL for e-signature and e-commerce. As a result, the Omani Electronic Transactions Law of 2008 gave electronic transactions the same power as paper transactions, and created the legal framework for electronic signatures, authentication, intermediary liability, and even data protection in connection with electronic transactions.

The new Electronic Transactions Law of 2025 does not make any groundbreaking changes to the existing comprehensive framework set by the Electronic Transactions Law of 2008. Instead, it carefully adjusts its scope, modernises the technical concepts used by the law, and imposes higher punishments for violating the law.

In terms of scope, the new law explicitly states that it does not prejudice regulations set by the CBO in all matters relating to the regulation of banks and financial institutions, which suggests that CBO now has the power to override certain provisions of this law. The previous law also excluded personal status matters, court procedures, and transactions that require attestation by the Public Notary from its scope. All these exclusions have been removed from the new law.

The new law also replaces the concept of “certification services” with the much wider concept of “trust services”, which is defined in article 24 of the law to cover issuance of electronic authentication certificates, qualified electronic signatures, electronic seals, verification of electronic identity, and electronic delivery services.

Furthermore, the law now makes a distinction between simple electronic signatures, advanced electronic signatures, and qualified electronic signatures; sets new rules for recognising such signatures as reliable evidence; and specifies which of these types are considered trust services.

Finally, the law increases the punishments that may be imposed for violating the law from a maximum of 5,000 Rial Omani under the old law to 50,000 Rial Omani under the new law.

The new Electronic Transactions Law has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

His Majesty issued by royal decree a new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law in October of last year, which repealed the Advocacy Law of 1996 and introduced a major reform of the legal profession in Oman. The new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law splits the legal profession into two separate activities: advocacy and legal consultancy, with advocacy essentially covering all the activities of the legal profession—such as giving legal advice, drafting contracts, and providing litigation services, while legal consultancy covers the same activities with the exception of litigation services. Both advocacy offices and legal consultancy offices are also permitted to do arbitration work.

The framework created by the new law requires advocacy work to be exclusively delivered by advocacy offices that can only hire Omani advocates, while legal consultancy work must be exclusively delivered by legal consultancy offices that can only hire Omani and non-Omani legal consultants and no advocates. This means that if a law firm wishes to provide litigation services, this law firm must be registered as an advocacy office, and it will not be able to hire any non-Omani lawyer. If a law firm wishes to hire any non-Omani lawyers, this law firm must be registered as a legal consultancy office, and it will not be able to provide litigation services. The law also introduced new provisions that permit international law firms to open a branch in Oman in the form of a legal consultancy office without having a local partner.

In addition to this new classification, the law creates new qualification and continuous development requirements for advocates that an advocate is required to meet to move up the rolls that enable the advocate to appear before higher court levels.

While the law had comprehensive details of how advocates are admitted and qualified, it did not provide details on how legal consultants would be admitted, and left this matter to the executive regulation of the law, which was published this past Sunday.

The Executive Regulation of the Adovcacy and Legal Consultancy Law stipulates that for an Omani lawyer to be registered as a legal consultant, this lawyer must have at least two years of legal work experience, and that for a non-Omani lawyer to be registered as a legal consultant, this lawyer must have at least five years of legal work experience. The term used for legal work experience in the context of legal consultancy work is not the same term used for advocacy equivalent works provided for in article 12, so it is not clear what kind of legal experience is required. However, what this appears to suggest is that legal consultancy offices would not be able to hire any Omani person as a legal consultant if this person does not have at least two years of experience, and it also means that foreign lawyers can work in Oman in private practice only if they have at least five years of experience and only in legal consultancy offices.

Unlike advocates, there are no examination or continuous development requirements for legal consultants.

In regard to international law firms, the executive regulation stipulates that they can operate in Oman on their own or in partnership with legal consultancy offices (but not advocacy offices). This is only permitted for law firms that have been established for more than 15 years and have branches in at least three countries.

Both the law and the regulation have many other key changes that will affect the licensing of lawyers and law firms, and the impact that this will have on the industry will be unpredictable. If a local Omani law firm currently hires non-foreign lawyers (including Egyptian, Sudanese, and Indian lawyers), this law firm would have to decide whether to let go of these lawyers—if it chooses to remain as an advocacy office—or transform into a legal consultancy office and give up on its litigation business. International law firms operating in partnerships with Omani law firms might also have to reconsider their partnerships as the law now prohibits establishing a partnership with an advocacy office, and instead allows them to either operate independently or in collaboration with a legal consultancy office.

Both the law and its executive regulation have already entered into force. However, existing law firms generally have until October of this year to comply with it, and law firms established in partnerships with a non-Omani have until October of 2027 to remove the non-Omani partner.

You can read the law and its executive regulation in English in full on the links below:

The Omani Financial Law does not relate to the financial industry, banks, or financial services. Instead, it sets the framework for the management and oversight of financial operations in the Omani government by setting the rules for disbursing and collecting money by government entities, the process for developing the government’s annual budget, and the prescription rules for collecting money owed by and from the Omani government.

The new Financial Law of 2025 does not make significant changes to the framework previously established by the Financial Law of 1998 and, for the most part, merely modernises the language and structure used in the law. However, there are still some subtle and specific changes such as a new provision permitting the sub-lease of a part of a government property in certain cases and the extension of the prescription period by 15 years when a final judgment is made in connection to a claim.

We highly recommend that those who do business with the Omani government read this law. The new Financial Law entered into force yesterday. You can read it in full in English on the link below:

A strange thing about this new Law of Special Economic Zones is that it does not define the terms “Special Economic Zone” and “Free Zone”. However, the key differences between them appear to be that a special economic zone is a more comprehensive project that may or may not include a free zone within it; that a special economic zone is directly managed by OPAZ, while a free zone is required to have a third-party operator; and that special economic zones can include real estate development projects where property may be sold to Omani and non-Omani persons, while standard free zones can’t.

The provisions regarding real estate development projects in special economic zones are a new addition not previously found in the System of the Special Economic Zone in Duqm. Outside this key change, the law appears to mostly attempt to consolidate the provisions that were uniquely provided through the System of the Special Economic Zone at Duqm into general provisions that can apply to any special economic zone to be created in the future.

It is worth noting that the provisions of the law remain conservative and the status they grant special economic zones is not comparable to the status of special free zones in neighbouring countries such as DIFC, ADGM, or QFC, that operate in a manner independent of the national legal system of the state and have their own regulators, substantive laws, and court system. In Oman, special economic zones created under the new Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones remain basic free zones that offer time-limited tax reliefs along with streamlined processes for obtaining government approvals.

The new Law of Special Economic Zones and Free Zones entered into force yesterday. You can read it in full in English on the link below: