Decree Blog
69 royal decrees were issued in the year 2024 that had a transformational impact on the economy and the Omani legal system at large, from the promulgation of a new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law and a new System for Signing Government Contracts, to the creation of a new Financial Services Authority and the appointment of a new Chairman for the Tax Authority. This blog post reviews the most significant royal decrees that came out this year.
As we wrap up the month of December, we thought it would be fun to ask members of the Decree team to tell us about the legal developments that they personally found to be most interesting in the year 2024. To allow for some diversity in the answers, nobody was allowed to mention the new Advocacy and Legal Consultancy Law in their answers, since this was the biggest legislative development for the legal profession in Oman in a very long time.
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.
Earlier this month, the Ministry of Transport, Communications, and Information Technology (MTCIT) issued a new Ship and Port Facility Security Regulation, which repealed the Ship and Port Facility Security Regulation of 2016.
Both regulations are based on the International Ship and Port Facility Security Code (ISPS Code), which Oman ratified by Royal Decree 63/2004. The new regulation comprehensively updates the governance of ship and port facility security. For example, it incorporates a new structure for port facility security verification, introduces new obligations for different stakeholders, establishes a new framework to license private companies to carry out certain tasks related to ship and port facility security including ship security verification, and imposes administrative fines that the MTCIT can impose if the regulation is not complied with.
You can read the decision in full in English on the link below:
The Telecommunications Regulatory Authority (TRA) recently published on its website a non-binding Guideline for Enhancing the Contribution of the Postal Sector in Preserving the Environment and Reducing Harmful Emissions.
This guideline is based on the UN Sustainable Development Goals and prescribes a number of actions under different headings that postal companies can adopt to reduce their carbon emissions. For example, under the heading Vehicles and Means of Transport, it is suggested that postal companies should ensure that an annual percentage is set for converting their delivery vehicles to modern and environmentally friendly vehicles.
Even though this guideline is not legally binding, it is highly recommended that postal companies consider them, especially as the guideline states that the TRA will issue—in cooperation with other government entities—directives with implementation targets and timelines.
You can read this guideline in full in English on the link below:
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:
The Ministry of Labour (MOL) published in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a new regulatory decision that governs the temprary transfer of non-Omani manpower between private sector establishments. This is a brand new area of regulation that did not exist in the past that sets the requirements for transferring non-Omani workers and imposes obligations on the establishment the worker is transferred to along with other matters.
Under this new decision, for a transfer to be legal, the worker must consent to the transfer, the profession to which the worker is transferred must not be an Omanised profession, and the two entities involved in the transfer must comply with Omanisation percentages. There are also other requirements relating to the visa of the worker, the duration of the transfer, and the overall percentage of workers transferred between the entities involved. Other matters governed by this new decision include pay, the nature of the new position, and other general rights and obligations.
It is important to note that there is a legal requirement to register the transfer of the worker with the Ministry of Labour.
This new decision has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below:
The Ministry of Labour (MOL) issued in this week’s issue of the Official Gazette a new decision regarding the Wage Protection System that repeals a previous decision from 2023 regarding the same topic.
The Wage Protection System is a framework created by the MOL that makes it a legal requirement for all employers in Oman to transfer the salaries of their workers using a specific electronic system through banks and other financial institutions licensed by the Central Bank of Oman. The objective of this system is to ensure that the salaries of workers are paid on time and that there is an electronic record of the transfer of the salaries.
Key changes in the new system include reducing the timeframe for transferring the wages of workers from 7 days to 3 days and introducing new grounds for the exemption from using the wage protection system such as situations where a worker is suspended from work for a reason not attributable to the employer for a period exceeding 30 days.
The new Wage Protection System has already entered into force. You can read it in full in English on the link below:
A country’s constitution is the most essential legal document in a legal system for a variety of reasons: It regulates the country’s governance structure, sets the fundamental rights of individuals, and is the most supreme legal document in a country that prevails over all other laws. Therefore, it is of vast importance to identify the constitutional statutes to apply laws correctly and to fairly regulate life and society.
The Omani Basic Statute of the State was first promulgated in 1996 by Sultan Qaboos by Royal Decree 101/96, as a gift to the people of Oman. The Basic Statute of the State provided a general legal framework upon which Oman operates, establishing its status and role as a constitution in Oman. However, since it is not formally called a constitution (or a Dostour in Arabic) and was promulgated merely by royal decree, some may doubt its legal status as the constitution.
To answer this question, this post will examine the Basic Statute of the State from a number of dimensions, namely, its name, its supremacy over other documents, its content, and its entrenchment, all of which are key attributes of constitutional documents.
A bilateral investment treaty (BIT) is an agreement between two states designed to encourage and protect investments made by nationals or companies from one country in the other. They provide legal assurances to investors, fostering a stable environment for cross-border investments. Many countries around the world have domestic laws that provide protection to foreign investors, for example, Oman has the Foreign Capital Investment Law, however, BITs make the duty to provide this protection a legal obligation under public international law and offer investors the ability to resort to international arbitration to enforce their rights under the BIT without the need to have a contract between the state and the investor that provides for arbitration.