• With the city skyline in the backdrop, people of different nationalities enjoy a good weather in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates, Wednesday, January 14, 2015. (AP)

This summer, while vacationing in the Arctic Circle, British lawyer Byron James filed what may be the largest divorce claim in Abu Dhabi’s history. Acting on behalf of a Caribbean client seeking Dh1bn ($270 million) after 20 years of marriage, James turned to the emirate’s new secular court system, a venue he says is becoming the preferred choice for high-net-worth individuals seeking swift, private resolutions.

According to Financial Times, for his wealthy clients, James explained, “you’ve got this other system, which hopefully can produce just as good an outcome but does so in a fraction of the time; it’s obvious which one they’re going to choose.”

The extraordinary claim has drawn attention to the Abu Dhabi Civil Family Court (ADCFC), founded in 2021 as a secular venue for the emirate’s large expatriate population. The court’s rise coincides with an influx of wealthy individuals relocating to the United Arab Emirates, many seeking refuge from new tax regimes in Europe and drawn by the UAE’s zero-income-tax environment.

Abu Dhabi’s family court has worked to make divorces more accessible to the globally mobile elite by operating entirely online. While vacationing in Norway’s Lofoten Islands, James was able to file documents without setting foot in the capital. Another of his clients joined a hearing from the comfort of an Emirates first-class seat.

Family disputes before ADCFC

Before the ADCFC’s creation, family disputes involving foreign residents were handled in courts applying domestic law, where inheritance rules favored male relatives. Hesham Elrafei, a solicitor and UAE law specialist, recalls a case involving a British widow who discovered that her late husband’s estate would be divided according to Islamic inheritance principles as applied in Abu Dhabi, a process that prioritized the man’s relatives over his wife. The experience left Elrafei questioning, “Why would Abu Dhabi force on a non-Muslim Briton the application of sharia law?”

He believes the establishment of the secular court is part of “the big vision to make Abu Dhabi a modern city,” designed to attract international talent. The former religious-based system, he added, had been “a big turn-off.” In some cases, divorces now conclude in as little as nine days.

The creation of a civil family court marks another step in Abu Dhabi’s broader strategy to position itself as a global destination for the wealthy, as per the report. However, the initiative has also intensified its rivalry with Dubai, raised jurisdictional questions, and drawn criticism from conservatives who view it as a departure from Islamic traditions.

Although Abu Dhabi is the UAE’s political and financial center, its economic diversification historically lagged behind Dubai’s. That began to change in 2018, when the emirate started reforming personal status laws to accommodate a growing non-Muslim population. These changes allowed interfaith couples to register births and led to the establishment of the ADCFC, which adopted legal standards familiar to Western expatriates,  including civil marriages, no-fault divorces, prenuptial agreements, and shared custody.

“Before the ADCFC was created, it was really necessary for expatriates living in the UAE to litigate those sorts of cases through the English courts,” says James, now head of UAE operations at Expatriate Law. Since the court opened, he adds, “we are extremely busy. I’m in the court [remotely] myself three or four times a week.”

Only civil family court in West Asia

According to the Financial Times, while Emirati citizens remain governed by Islamic law as applied in the emirate, Muslim expatriates from non-Muslim-majority countries can now opt to use the ADCFC. “That’s really Abu Dhabi saying that everyone, every expat, should feel at home in the emirate,” says Dipali Maldonado, a partner at Al Tamimi & Company.

The ADCFC remains the only civil family court in the Middle East, filling a legal gap for couples seeking non-religious marriages, still prohibited in relatively liberal countries. Since its launch, the court has registered 43,000 marriages, including 10,000 in the first half of this year alone.

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Still, the introduction of a civil legal framework has not been without resistance. “We had a lot of resistance,” Elrafei recalls. “One of the newspapers in Kuwait published two full pages attacking Abu Dhabi,” quoting religious scholars who denounced the new system. Even within the UAE, “people are not happy with it, but they can’t really say anything because it’s approved by the leadership.”

Abu Dhabi’s leadership has positioned the city as a symbol of religious coexistence, embodied by projects like the Abrahamic Family House, a complex featuring a mosque, church, and synagogue. Yet not all residents embrace the changes. Many in the region still believe family matters among Muslims should remain governed by religious law.

Online hearings at the ADCFC are often crowded, with dozens of lawyers and plaintiffs appearing virtually before a judge. “I find it slightly odd that everyone is kind of in there all together,” one advocate remarked. But for the globally mobile, the ease of remote filing outweighs the logistical quirks.

One British man who obtained a no-fault divorce through the ADCFC said the process could be confusing, with some forms hard to locate. “You still need a lawyer to guide you through it,” he noted, but added, “fundamentally, it’s fantastic” because it allowed him to move on quickly.

The court’s confidentiality, bilingual proceedings, and no-fault structure have made it especially appealing to high-profile clients. There is no minimum marriage duration required before filing, and foreign lawyers are permitted to represent clients, both rare features in the region.

Some attorneys believe the court has generally favored women. “When it comes to financial remedies, for example, ADCFC tends to be more generous to the less wealthy spouse,” says Maldonado. “That’s usually the wife or the mother of the man’s children.”

Still, Elrafei points out that men cannot claim rights to their wives’ assets, a limitation he sees as a sign that true gender parity has not yet been achieved. “When the Pope is a woman, when the sheikh is a woman . . . [they] will make full equality between women and men,” he says.

Competition extends beyond family law

Abu Dhabi’s progressive legal reforms have also set it apart from Dubai, whose courts remain bound by Islamic law. Many Dubai residents now seek to have their cases heard in Abu Dhabi, sometimes renting property or registering businesses in the capital to establish jurisdiction. The competition extends beyond family law, as both emirates race to attract global investment and talent, with Abu Dhabi increasingly seen as a hub for asset managers and hedge funds.

Large divorce settlements have become more common, the report stressed. Samara Iqbal, founder of Aramas Family Law, recalls a case involving a man who had Dh8bn “just in his current account.” The ADCFC, she said, “has become this new venue, attracting people with worldwide assets and public figures to use it.”

This trend has drawn more lawyers into family law. “When I started practicing, this field didn’t have such a big number of family lawyers,” says Hassan Elhais of Awatif Mohammad Shoqi Advocates & Legal Consultancy. Maldonado described managing a Dh500mn settlement involving assets spread across five countries. “It was extremely amicable,” she noted, “even though the husband had not been a good boy.”

Not all cases conclude smoothly. Iqbal recounts a case involving a woman who won compensation and company shares after accusing her husband of infidelity, only for him to flee the country without paying. “We had to file an enforcement saying she’s owed this money, and these shares, and he’s not bothered paying,” she says. The case is now being pursued in Spain.

Lawyers also note that automatic joint custody makes it difficult for one parent to obtain sole custody. “It’s practically impossible,” says Maldonado, who has succeeded only twice in six months. 

Abu Dhabi eyes the world's wealthy

Another legal hurdle is asset disclosure. The court cannot compel a spouse to declare their full global wealth, though it appoints financial experts to assess UAE-based assets. 

In one unusual case, Maldonado advised an older client preparing a prenuptial agreement before marrying a younger woman. The contract demanded he pay $10 million upfront, along with a home, a boat, and Cartier jewelry in the event of divorce. “This prenuptial agreement was: ‘You [the man] have to give me $10mn in order for me to marry you,’” she recalls, amused. The terms were so imbalanced that she required him to sign a waiver confirming he had ignored her legal advice.

As the ADCFC evolves, such unconventional arrangements may soon be tested, as per the piece. Elrafei says the emirate is already working on additional legal structures to attract global capital, including family foundation models similar to trusts. “All this [is] to create Abu Dhabi as a legal and business hub to attract foreign investors, best talents and money,” he says.

And as Abu Dhabi continues refining its legal system, it appears determined not only to host the world’s wealthy, but to marry and, when necessary, divorce them as well, the piece concluded.