GCC Legal Issues & Guidance

Why GCC legal systems need careful, country-specific navigation

Two structural features set the GCC apart from most legal systems covered on this journal, and both cut across every category below. First, Islamic law (Sharia) functions as an actual source of binding legal rules — not just a moral backdrop — most visibly in family and personal status law, though the degree of codification differs sharply by country and by year: Qatar codified its Family Law in 2006, while Saudi Arabia only codified its first Personal Status Law in 2022, having relied on uncodified Sharia principles and judicial discretion before that. Second, the kafala (sponsorship) system ties a foreign worker's legal right to live and work in most GCC countries to a specific employer — a genuinely different structure than residency systems where legal status is independent of any one job.

Neither feature is static. Qatar dismantled its exit-permit and No Objection Certificate requirements in 2020; the UAE introduced a federal corporate tax in 2023 and a separate civil personal-status framework for non-Muslim expats in 2022; and Saudi Arabia opened real estate ownership to non-Saudis in specially designated zones under a law taking effect in 2026. Because each of the six GCC countries — Saudi Arabia, UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain, and Oman — legislates independently and reforms at its own pace, a rule that's accurate for one country is often wrong for its neighbor, even within the same guide category.