UAE, March 4, 2018 - The General Secretariat of the Supreme Legislation Committee in the Emirate of Dubai (SLC) has successfully conducted a legislative drafting training course for its legal staff entitled 'Legislation and Innovation', as part of the SLC’s endeavours to foster innovation in legislative work and enhance the SLC legal staff’s capabilities to draft viable, pioneering legislation and effective legal opinions that meet the requirements of sustainable development. The training course is aligned with the training strategy adopted by the SLC, which aims to train legal professionals in the best legislative practices to empower them to contribute to the development of the legislative process, in implementation of the directives of the UAE's wise leadership to envision and build the future.

The training course was organised by the SLC's Innovation and Creativity Team, in cooperation with the Knowledge Management Section. During the course, members of the SLC legal staff have gained in-depth knowledge on linguistic subtleties from the perspective of legislative drafting, and ways to draft legislation which is capable of achieving the SLC vision of building an integrated legislative system that helps support the emirate's sustainable development goals.

Faisal Al Zafain, Head of the SLC Knowledge Management Section, stressed the importance of training courses and development programs for developing the skills of the SLC legal officers and keeping them at pace with latest legislative practices so they may contribute to the development of the legislative process and the legal system--based on excellence, innovation, and transparency to ensure proper implementation of legislation and establish the rule of law.”, adding that the “Legislation and Innovation” course constitutes a qualitative step forward in fostering creativity and innovation in legislative work, and in raising awareness of the importance of innovation for legislative development, in implementation of the vision of His Highness Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, who said: 'Creativity and ideas can build countries and institutions. The future belongs to those who generate ideas.'

“We continue our efforts to invest in highly qualified legal professionals to fuel the drive towards excellence; and develop forward-looking legislation and effective legal opinions that support the ambitious development plans in line with the National Strategy for Innovation. The SLC focuses on building capacities and encouraging excellence, innovation, and creativity as the enablers for achieving the aspirations of the SLC to develop a futuristic legislative framework that supports the strategic goal of positioning Dubai as a city of the future, transforming it into the world’s largest laboratory for the governments of the future, and setting Dubai ten years ahead of other cities in the world, in line with the Dubai 10X initiative,” reaffirmed Al Zafain.

The two-day course was held from February 26 to February 28, 2018 at the SLC headquarters in Dubai. The course covered two topics—'Innovation in Legislative Drafting,’ which was led by Mohammed Salah Al Etawi, Head of the SLC Technical Office; and ‘Linguistic Rules for Legislative Drafting,’ which was facilitated by Mr. Salim Ibrahim Al Ahmad, Head of the SLC Research and Publications Section.