With the attendance of 74 Dubai Government Entities

UAE, 22 November 2020: The 2nd edition of the Legislative Week, held virtually by the General Secretariat of the Supreme Legislation Committee in the Emirate of Dubai (SLC), kicked off today (Sunday, November 22, 2020) under the theme, ‘Legislative Agility for Achieving Viability’. High-level representatives of 74 local government entities attended the virtual event to discuss the future of the legislative process in preparation for the next 50 years, ushering a new era of development and progress for the UAE.

The Legislative Week has attracted legal professionals and experts working across various government entities, being an important strategic platform to exchange their success stories and best industry practices. The virtual event is aimed at exploring the future of the legislative process, while also identifying the means of achieving viability of legislation and enhancing regulatory stability under the dynamic government policies. Adopting legislative agility will help achieving legal and legislative excellence in line with Dubai's ambitious sustainable development drive.

The main highlight of the Legislative Week 2020 is the ‘Legislation Lab’, an integrated innovation platform aligned with the UAE national strategy for envisioning and shaping the future employing state-of-the-art technology. The ‘Legislation Lab’ will serve as a safe experimental environment for proposing and drafting dynamic and agile legislation that can help enhance the quality of life in Dubai.

Discussions during the Legislative Week will focus on achieving legislation viability through agility, with a special emphasis on improving the internal legislative evaluation measures adopted by government entities. Internal legislative evaluation has effectively contributed to the legislative audit process, which aims at ensuring proper implementation by government entities of their legislation, which is key to achieving the goals of the Dubai Plan 2021 related to the theme: “An Excellent and Pioneering Government”, by ensuring fair implementation of laws and regulations to achieve happiness and the well-being of the entire community.

Moreover, the Legislative Week will focus on the development of legal skills required for drafting viable legislation. Other topics of discussion are ‘'Legislation Viability; Everyone's Responsibility'’ and ‘Envisioning Future Legislation.’ On legal skills developments, the current edition of the Legislative Week will feature training programmes, awareness lectures, and interactive online workshops. Law students from the UAE’s most prestigious universities will take part in the virtual events, which are aimed at imparting legal and legislative knowledge and skills. The learning opportunities reflect the SLC’s commitment to fostering the legal culture in the UAE and building the capabilities of the Emirati legal professionals, so they may contribute to developing the legislative system; a basic pillar in achieving the goal of the Dubai Plan 2021, namely, “A pioneering, and excellent government”.

Ahmad Saeed bin Meshar Al Muhairi, SLC Secretary General, stated that the ‘Legislative Week is being held virtually as part of the preventive measures adopted in response to the current global health emergency. Al Muhairi also pointed out that this edition provides a unique opportunity to increase legislative awareness and foster a legal culture across a wider segment of the Emirati society. Furthermore, Al Muhairi asserted that the event is a platform designed to enrich and transfer legislative knowledge and experience with a view to building competent legal cadres capable of ensuring the optimal development and implementation of viable and balanced government legislation. “The SLC is committed to imparting legislative knowledge and skills by conducting a series of training courses. Developing the skills of the UAE human capital is held as top priority by the UAE wise leadership, who view human capital as the country’s “most valuable resource in building the UAE future”, noted Al Muhairi.

“The Legislative Week is being held amid accelerated technological development, especially in Dubai, which takes the lead in becoming a smart, integrated, and sustainable city. We are keen on working with relevant government entities to further develop future legislation that supports technologies and the Fourth Industrial Revolution, including artificial intelligence and cloud computing. The use of advanced technological applications may lead to a host of legal problems concerning information security, copyrights, privacy, and intellectual property laws. As part of its efforts to develop a legislative system that keeps up with the changing present and looks ahead to future challenges, the SLC has been active in cooperating with the concerned local government entities on evaluating the applicable legislation, in an effort to make it more proactive, agile, balanced, and integrated. We aim to develop a legislative system that supports government goals for shaping a future where the safety, well-being, prosperity, and happiness of all people are protected.”

Al Muhairi concluded: “We are confident that the ‘Legislation Lab’ and the Legislative Week will serve as a platform for fruitful discussions on new mechanisms and innovative ways to improve the legislative and legal frameworks. This is in line with the Dubai ambitious plans to place Dubai 10 years ahead of world cities. The SLC will continue to tackle pressing issues, and make appropriate recommendations to serve the emirate’s ambitious goals, inspired by the wise vision of H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who called on making our legislative system viable and proactive in order to serve vital sectors and keep pace with the most important future trends.”