BS Lawyers & Legal Consultants, a law firm in Dubai, has set out the contract points that businesses and investors in the USA, the UK and Europe should check under the new UAE Civil Transactions Law, in force since 1 June 2026. Its legal drafting ser
Dubai, United Arab Emirates The UAE’s new Civil Transactions Law has now been in force for five months, and it changes the ground rules for anyone negotiating or signing a contract with a UAE party. Federal Decree Law No. 25 of 2025 took effect on 1 June 2026 and replaced the Civil Code that had applied since 1985. BS Lawyers & Legal Consultants, a law firm in Dubai that works mainly with clients in the USA, the UK and Europe, says overseas businesses and investors should treat their UAE contracts and templates as documents to check again, not paperwork to reuse. https://bs-lawyers.com/legal-drafting-dubai/ Good faith now sits at the center of the negotiating stage.
Parties are expected to act in good faith while a deal is being discussed and to disclose information that could influence the other side’s decision. The aim is to reduce disputes over hidden information, misleading statements and abrupt withdrawals from talks after one side has already spent money on the deal. Penalty clauses have also become less predictable. Compensation is assessed against the actual loss, including whether the injured party contributed to it, and a contractual penalty that is excessive or does not reflect the real damage can be reduced.
A penalty clause lifted from an American or British template may therefore not hold at the figure written in it. Language is a second weak point in cross-border deals. Arabic remains the official language of legal proceedings in the UAE under the Civil Procedure Law, and many UAE counterparties send their contracts in Arabic or in Arabic and English. When a bilingual contract does not say which version prevails, the same clause can end up with two competing meanings.
The firm advises overseas clients to settle three points before signing: which language controls, which law governs the contract, and where any dispute will be heard.BS Lawyers‘ legal drafting services in Dubai cover commercial contracts and service agreements, memorandums of understanding, non-disclosure and confidentiality agreements, shareholder and partnership agreements, employment contracts and workplace policies, settlement agreements, property and vendor documents, and formal legal notices. Contract review is a large part of the work.
Agreements drafted by the other side are checked and negotiated before signature, with each clause explained in plain English and the risky terms flagged for the client. Typical requests from abroad include turning an MOU into a binding agreement, putting a new UAE partnership on paper, documenting a loan or investment that was only agreed verbally, and updating NDAs, employment contracts or shareholder terms that no longer match the business. The process is designed for clients who are not in the UAE, so there is no need to travel to Dubai.
The client shares the brief and documents remotely, the firm’s lawyers in Dubai prepare a first draft under UAE law in plain, enforceable language, and the draft is revised through review rounds until it is ready for signing. Where a document needs attestation, this is arranged as part of the final stage.More information on legal drafting and contract review in Dubai, including the main changes under the new Civil Transactions Law, is available on the firm’s website.
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BS Lawyers & Legal Consultants
BS Lawyers & Legal Consultants
E11 – Trade Center First
0000 E11 – Trade Center First
Phone: 0551040613
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Url: https://bs-lawyers.com/
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