Course Descriptions

This course covers the following topics: rules and principles for preparing scholarly legal research; legal research methodologies, their functions and objectives; legal research techniques; practical legal writing; the strategy required to carry it out; the principles to observe when writing it in terms of form and substance; drawing conclusions and presenting recommendations. The course also trains students in how to use sources and references, and refers them to the most important legal websites on the World Wide Web (Internet) to extract information. In addition, it follows up on practical application.

This course covers the following topics. General approach: the course studies the concept of financial and economic legislation in terms of its content, its objectives and its link to achieving economic policies, and sets out the main foundations and principles relating to public expenditure and public revenue, particularly taxes, the rules of the public budget, and the main features of financial and economic legislation. Specific approach: the course focuses on one or more of the following topics: budget law and the financial rules governing the budget of the United Arab Emirates; the laws governing free zones; customs and tax laws; the rules governing international trade as defined by the World Trade Organization; international agreements on international trade and transnational investment; anti-monopoly and consumer protection laws; and the laws governing the Central Bank and commercial banks.

Course description: This course is devoted to an in-depth study of selected issues of criminal law in both its general and special parts. It covers issues of general criminal law in its two parts, crime and punishment, and issues of special criminal law in its two parts, offences against property and offences against persons. The course also includes a study of models of cybercrime through their definition, elements, forms and types, the difference between them and traditional crimes, and methods of investigating their evidence and combating them, in accordance with Federal Decree-Law No. (34) of 2021 on Combating Rumours and Cybercrimes.

The course covers, in its general approach, the general principles of criminal procedure through the stages of evidence gathering, preliminary investigation and trial, and methods of appeal against judgments, with focus on the principles relevant to the topic taught in the specific approach. In its specific approach, it covers the provisions governing the progress of criminal proceedings, the rules of evidence, especially in models of new crimes, and methods of appeal against judgments. The study is in-depth and comparative and focuses on modern topics in the specialisation, such as alternatives to criminal proceedings (the penal order, reconciliation in criminal matters, and others), as well as the authority of electronic evidence in criminal proof, including its treatment of criminal proof rules in comparative legal systems. The course lecturer selects one of these topics.

This course includes the following topics. General approach: the course studies administrative law and provides an overview of its fundamentals: definition of administrative law and its origins in the United Arab Emirates, human resources law, and judicial and administrative oversight of administrative acts under UAE law. Specific approach: the course studies in depth one of the topics of administrative law of particular interest to the United Arab Emirates, focusing on modern topics in the specialisation, namely an in-depth study of the disciplinary system under the Human Resources Law of the United Arab Emirates, as follows: 1. The disciplinary system under UAE Human Resources Law: occupational misconduct. 2. The disciplinary system under UAE Human Resources Law: administrative penalties. 3. The disciplinary system under UAE Human Resources Law: disciplinary procedures. 4. Disciplinary safeguards under the Human Resources Law: procedural disciplinary safeguards. 5. Disciplinary safeguards under the Human Resources Law: substantive disciplinary safeguards.

General approach: definition of international law, its historical development, its relationship with national law, its sources and its subjects, specifically the State and its elements, the means of acquiring sovereignty over territory, and diplomatic and consular relations. Specific approach: in-depth study of a selected topic in international law, such as international environmental law, international human rights law, the law of the sea, and space law.

Definition of international criminal law, its origins and historical development, its sources, its definition as an international penal code, the nature of international crime and its types, its elements, the determination of international criminal responsibility arising from those crimes, grounds for exemption from it such as necessity and legitimate self-defence, with a statement of the prescribed penalty, procedures for investigating those crimes and collecting and examining their evidence, the course of criminal proceedings arising from them before the International Criminal Court until judgment is issued and enforced, and the difficulties faced in enforcement. The course is also devoted to in-depth study of one international crime, such as the crime of genocide, war crimes, crimes of aggression, crimes against humanity...

Definition of international humanitarian law, its historical origins, its customary and conventional sources, and the most prominent principles on which it is based: the principle of distinction, the principle of proportionality and the principle of necessity; mercenaries in international law.

This course includes the following topics. General approach: the course studies the international administrative contract, distinguishing it from the domestic administrative contract, and highlighting its importance and characteristics. Specific approach: the course covers detailed topics relating to the legal nature of international administrative contracts and their types, as well as their legal regime, specifically the conclusion of international administrative contracts, the determination of their content, and their disputes, whether these relate to international arbitration or are brought before the national judge.

Definition of special penal legislation, its characteristics, its historical development, the rationale for enacting it, its types, and the difference between it and general penal legislation. The course is also devoted to in-depth study of one of the crimes regulated by such legislation found in the special laws of the United Arab Emirates, such as the Law on Combating Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances, the Law on Combating Information Technology Crimes, the Law on Combating Money Laundering, and the Law on Combating Terrorist Crimes.

General approach: includes the study of the principles and theories of constitutional law relating to the State (functions of the State and the rule of law), the constitution, and judicial review of the constitutionality of laws (concept and types). Specific approach: includes in-depth study of a selected topic in constitutional law and political systems that is important to the Emirates, namely judicial review of the constitutionality of laws and its application in the United Arab Emirates: the UAE Constitution, its origin, content and development; review of the constitutionality of laws in the UAE, its nature as judicial review; the Federal Supreme Court as the constitutional review judge in the UAE; the powers of the Federal Supreme Court; and the procedures before the Federal Supreme Court.