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This chapter describes the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) perspectives on the Hague Principles. Whereas the DIFC is bound by international treaties ratified by the United Arab Emirates (UAE) on a federal level, the DIFC’s domestic sources of private international law are laid down in several statutory enactments and, as a common law jurisdiction, also case law. The most important rules on choice of law in international contracts are codified in the DIFC Law No 10 of 2005 (the DIFC Law Application Law), which govern the law applicable to contractual obligations. It sets out clearly and succinctly the most important applicable law rules, which respect the parties’ autonomy to choose the applicable law. Although Article 30(1) of the DIFC Court Law clearly instructs the DIFC Courts what law they must apply, Article 30(2) authorizes the DIFC Courts to ‘consider decisions made in other jurisdictions for the purpose of making its decision’. Accordingly, so far as the Hague Principles have been referenced in decisions in other jurisdictions, the Court may also refer to them.

This chapter addresses Qatari perspectives on the Hague Principles. The State of Qatar has two legal frameworks: the onshore civil law system and the offshore common law-based the Qatar Financial Centre, established in 2005 and not covered in this chapter. In onshore Qatar, private international law is codified in Articles 10–38 of Subchapter 3 (conflict of laws in space) of Chapter 1 of the Qatar Civil Code (Federal Law No 22 of 2004). In comparison to its European counterparts, the Qatari private international law codification contains significant gaps. Though only promulgated in 2004, Articles 10–38 are near copies of the conflict of law rules contained in the Egyptian Civil Code of 1949, with a few differences. In accordance with Article 34 Civil Code, ‘the [general] principles of private international law’ shall apply in the case of a conflict of laws absent any statutory provision. The provision opens the doors for Qatari courts to refer to the Hague Principles.