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Article

16 Jan 2013

Author:
Abeer Allam, Financial Times

Slow pace of Saudi law reforms under fire

Five years after…a sweeping legal reform, aimed at training judges, codifying sharia (Islamic law), introducing specialised commercial courts and speeding up the litigation procedures, lawyers and businessmen complain that the problems afflicting the Saudi legal system run very deep…“The lack of real judicial reform has a catastrophic impact on both human rights and the business environment,” says…a lawyer… Saudi Arabia follows a strict interpretation of sharia and judges insist that they should use their own interpretation based on old religious sources rather than previous court verdicts based on other “human” judgment…[I]f someone sold a faulty machine that caused death, injury or just broke down, the suppliers might argue that it was God’s will, businessmen complain. Despite criticism…the Court of Grievances, which handles commercial disputes relating to foreigners and their investments, has improved tremendously in recent years and issued remarkable verdicts…