Federal Supreme Court (Federal and Local Judicial Principles Unification Authority), Requests Nos. 4 and 5 of 2023, decision of 21 December 2023
Article 1(5) of the Criminal Procedure Law applies the Civil Procedure Law where the criminal code has no specific provision. Reconsideration (rujuu) of a final judgment under Article 190 of the Civil Procedure Law is a general procedural rule, not an exception, and is compatible with the nature of criminal proceedings. The State's supreme courts may therefore reconsider their own final judgments in criminal appeals. The Authority preferred the position of the Federal Supreme Court and the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation to the Dubai Court of Cassation's refusal to entertain such requests.
Two requests were joined: one by the Federal Attorney General, filed on 5 September 2023, and one by the President of the Dubai Court of Cassation, filed on 11 September 2023. The Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation had granted reconsideration of its own criminal judgments: in request 4 of 2021 (decided 2 February 2022) and in request 45 of 2023 (decided 24 April 2023), which concerned an extradition appeal whose judgment had not dealt with an essential defence. The Federal Supreme Court had done the same (requests 14 of 2022 and 25 of 2023). The Dubai Court of Cassation (request 52 of 2023, decided 1 August 2023, and later requests) refused. It held that Article 190 of Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022 is addressed only to the civil chambers, since criminal appeals are not decided in chambers and the formalities of Article 185(1) concern civil appeals, and that a final criminal judgment can be reopened only by a petition for retrial. The Authority reasoned that the Civil Procedure Law is the general law of procedure and Article 1(5) of the Criminal Procedure Law refers to it on matters the criminal code does not regulate. A civil rule may be borrowed where it is a general procedural rule rather than an exception and does not conflict with the principles of criminal procedure, including the protection of personal liberty and the accused's rights of defence. Reconsideration is not exceptional: it also appears in Article 32 of the Civil Procedure Law and in the 2023 Bankruptcy Law, which allows a final appellate judgment in an insolvency challenge to be reconsidered under the Civil Procedure Law's rules. Its purpose, judicial correction of errors, applies equally to criminal judgments. The Authority also referred to French, Sudanese and Egyptian practice, and noted that UAE courts had reversed final judgments in civil and criminal matters before reconsideration was codified. It adopted the principle of the Federal Supreme Court and the Abu Dhabi Court of Cassation.
Although it arose from criminal cases, the decision treats reconsideration under Article 190 as a general corrective mechanism rather than a narrow exception. The current text of Article 190 allows reconsideration for a procedural error by the court that affected the result, reliance on a repealed law, or departure from settled principles, including those of this Authority. The decision ends the divergence between Dubai and the other supreme courts on whether that remedy exists for criminal judgments.
| Article 190 of Federal Decree-Law No. 42 of 2022 (Civil Procedure Law), formerly Article 187 bis of Federal Law No. 11 of 1992 as amended by Federal Decree-Law No. 15 of 2021 — text of article 190 |
| Article 1(5) of Federal Decree-Law No. 38 of 2022 (Criminal Procedure Law) |
| Federal Decree-Law No. 51 of 2023 (Financial Restructuring and Bankruptcy Law): provision on reconsideration of final appellate judgments, cited by the Authority as Article 144(2); the quoted text appears as Article 265(2) in the library version — text of article 265 |
| Articles 15 and 16 of Federal Law No. 10 of 2019 on the Regulation of Judicial Relations between Federal and Local Judicial Authorities |
“ترجيح مبدأ جواز العدول عن الأحكام الباتة الصادرة من المحاكم العليا في المواد الجزائية تحقيقاً للعدالة وإصلاحاً لما قد يشوب بعض الأحكام الباتة”Short quotation from the judgment as published by the court. The full judgment is on the court’s official service.
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