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Source: Gulf News

UAE laws translated into English

Marten Youssef

* Last Updated: April 23. 2009 11:53PM UAE / April 23. 2009 7:53PM GMT

ABU DHABI // In a major step towards improving transparency in the legal system, the Ministry of Justice yesterday announced that every federal law passed since the UAE’s founding in 1971 has been translated into English and will soon be available online.

The ministry has also begun translating 1,500 federal court decisions, 500 international treaties signed by the UAE and 2,000 official fatwas issued by UAE muftis, to create a centralised, easily accessible body of case law and statutes in both Arabic and English.

The Government says the translations will give legal practitioners, businesses and scholars unprecedented access to the country’s lawbooks. The aim is to improve understanding of the UAE’s laws and legal system internationally, as well as foster the transparency sought by international companies and investors.

“There are more people that speak English than Arabic in the UAE and our goal is to make the laws available to them,” said Abdulla al Majid, the Minister’s Adviser and the director of the translation project.

All the documents will be posted online at www.elaws.gov.ae. The website will initially be free for public access for three months, but the ministry is contemplating eventually charging users a subscription fee.

“We are looking for feedback at this stage from the public to wage which direction we will go. We are considering creating different levels of memberships, such as academics and corporations,” Mr al Majid said.

More than 80 people working in the US, Lebanon and the UAE, including various ministries and courts, have worked on the project for two years so far.

“This is a three-step programme. First we had to gather all the relevant laws, then put them on the website in Arabic and then translate them in an ongoing programme,” Mr al Majid said.

The programme also aims to centralise the federal laws, treaties and fatwas and decisions taken by the Federal Supreme Court.

“Our goal was to get every single law created and amended since 1973,” Mr al Majid said.

Although the country was founded in 1971 with the passage of the Constitution, the first federal laws were not passed for another two years.

“This is clearly a wealth of information that for the first time is available to the public directly from the Ministry of Justice and not from a law firm,” Mr al Majid said.

“The best feature about this is the search engine which allows you to find even one word amid a sea of legal documents. That changes the face of research for academics, lawyers, judges, businesses and the public. You can imagine the kind of impact this will have on the overall justice system.”

The English translations are just the beginning, Mr al Majid said.

“We are also considering translating them into other languages, and translating specific laws within each emirate. At this point our focus is on English. This opens new doors for us and boosts our credibility further.”

He said the UAE’s diverse population meant that English had become the language of business. The project “will encourage people to learn more about our values and law even from their own countries before they come here,” Mr al Majid added.

Several sources have already translated many UAE laws.

The most prominent effort has been undertaken by a company called Affinitext, which has translated more than 3,000 laws and made them available in Arabic and English on the internet for specialised users.

The project was initially an undertaking for DLA Piper, one of the largest law firms.

“There are over 3,000 laws with no central repository,” said Graham Thomson, founder of Affinitext.

“Each law resides with a different area: free zones, ministries and so on. To collate just the Arabic is a major logistic challenge. Then translating it, then putting it on the best available programme on the internet,” He said.

However, the translations by Affinitext are available online for a license fee for companies and law firms, and are not meant for private use.

myouseef@thenational.ae

Many convenient ways of paying traffic fines

By Rayeesa Absal, Staff Reporter
Published: January 30, 2009, 23:33

Abu Dhabi: There are several ways in which motorists may pay traffic fines imposed on their vehicles. Penalty charges may be paid directly at the traffic departments or more conveniently, online.

Other modes of payment include over the phone by calling the 24-hour hotline of the Federal Traffic and Licensing System and paying through automated teller machines.

The Abu Dhabi Police’s website www.adpolice.gov.ae provides electronic enquiry and traffic fines payment system for motorists across all the emirates, helping residents to save time and effort.
Visit the bilingual website and click the electronic services tab to enquire about the fines. The enquiry may be made using the Federal Traffic Code (Traffic ID) or with the plate number of the vehicle or through the driver’s licence number.

Using the Traffic Federal code for the inquiry will help find fines on all the vehicles registered in the persons name unlike the plate number which only brings up fines on particular vehicle.

In order to pay online, select the fines to be paid, and complete the payment process by keying in your credit card details. The system provides quick and secure service with data being updated in less than five minutes.

To pay in person, go to the ‘Violations Section’ of Traffic and Licensing Department. Submit the vehicle ownership form or the driver’s licence. Pay the fine and collect a receipt.

The office is open from Sunday to Thursday from 7:30am until 2:30pm.

To pay over the phone, call the traffic hotline 8003333.

Details about traffic violations can be obtained in three ways – using the traffic ID, plate or licence number. Payment can be made by credit card. The system will send a fax message afterwards, to confirm payment of fines. Another way of clearing the traffic penalties is to use automated payment machines. These machines, which have touch screens and provide multiple services to customers. The services include inquiry on fines and other services of the police department.

Payment can be made by credit cards or in cash at these machines. They also provide information such as maps, pharmacies, weather and contact details of police stations. Also, complaints, suggestions and security information may be entered.

It is mandatory that all traffic fines on a vehicle are cleared before the registration of a vehicle can be renewed. To be on the safe side, keep all the receipts.

CareerJunction Middle East has announced it has launched an innovative mobile application that allows job seekers to search and apply for jobs using their mobile phones.
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After months of in-house tweaking and testing, Etisalat has launched its voice directory service in an effort to reduce response times.

Initially available only to landline customers calling ‘181’, the service will soon be made available to Etisalat’s mobile customers as well.

The service works with the help of an Interactive Voice Response (IVR) system that uses automatic speech recognition to distinguish commands in both Arabic and English, regardless of caller accent or dialect.

As the service is only in its first phase, it can presently only provide listings for five main categories – finance, travel, hotels, restaurants and healthcare. Other categories will be included at a later stage.

Customer service agents at Etisalat, who previously handled directory enquiries, will now provide support for other categories and requests that the system can’t handle.