UAE Federal Law No. 28 of 2005: Inside the Law That Governs Marriage, Divorce, Custody and Inheritance

Last Updated on September 5, 2026 by Shitiz Srivastava

When the United Arab Emirates issued Federal Law No. 28 of 2005 “Regarding Personal Status,” it did something which only few Gulf states had done before it – it codified, in a single statute running to nearly 350 articles, the entire life-cycle of the family under the law from engagement to marriage, from divorce to child custody, and from guardianship to inheritance.

Before this law came into effect, such matters were largely left to judicial discretion guided by uncodified Islamic jurisprudence.

The 2005 law changed that, giving UAE courts and the millions of citizens and residents who pass through the family court system, a written rulebook.

Two decades on, the law remains the backbone of personal status adjudication in the UAE, even as newer reforms, including a 2020 update permitting unmarried cohabitation and other liberalisations, and a separate 2022 personal status law specifically for non-Muslim foreigners, have layered additional options on top of it.

To Download Complete Federal Law No. 28 of 2005 here :

Here is what the original 2005 law actually says.

Who the Law Applies To

Article 1 sets out the law’s reach in three steps.

It applies going forward, but it also applies retrospectively to divorce deeds and divorce proceedings that had not yet reached a final judgment when the law came into force.

It applies to UAE citizens, unless a citizen belongs to a non-Muslim community with its own recognised religious rules.

And it applies to non-citizens residing in the UAE too, unless one of them specifically insists that their own national law govern the matter instead.

For interpretation, Article 2 instructs courts to fall back on the principles of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh), and where the statute itself is silent on the established rulings of the four Sunni schools of law, Maliki, Hanbali, Shafi’i and Hanafi, in that specified order of precedence.

Book One: Engagement and Marriage

The law’s first major division deals with marriage from its earliest stage.

Article 17 defines engagement as a promise of marriage, not a marriage itself, meaning either party is free to withdraw though Article 18 allows the other side to claim compensation if the withdrawal causes unwarranted harm.

Marriage proper is defined in Article 19 as a contract giving spouses the right to a lawful conjugal relationship, intended to build a stable family “in affinity and mercy.”

The law lists the contract’s essential elements, the parties themselves, the guardian’s role in a woman’s contract, and the offer and acceptance and separately addresses the categories of valid, void and irregular marriage and the different legal consequences that follow each.

A significant portion of Book One deals with the financial architecture of marriage like dowry (mahr), maintenance and property.

Article 62 is notable for stating plainly that a married woman retains full control over her own property, that her husband cannot dispose of it without her consent, and that each spouse holds independent financial assets, a principle that separates UAE law from the informal financial merging sometimes assumed in family life.

Maintenance itself, covering food, clothing, housing, medical care and where customary like a domestic servant, must under Article 63 be fixed according to the paying spouse’s means, the dependent’s situation and prevailing local costs, with a mandated minimum standard that cannot be undercut.

Book Two: Divorce, Judicial Separation and Custody

The law recognises multiple pathways out of a marriage, and this is where it gets most detailed.

Divorce (talaq) can be pronounced verbally, in writing, or through an understandable gesture where speech is impossible.

But the law does not leave separation solely in the husband’s hands, an entire chapter is devoted to judicial separation initiated by either spouse.

A wife or husband can seek dissolution through the courts for defects that are “irremediable or disgusting,” such as insanity or conditions that prevent sexual relations, provided the defect was unknown or unaccepted at the time of marriage.

The law goes further under Article 114, allowing either spouse to seek separation where deception induced the marriage, where infertility is medically proven after five years of a childless marriage, where a spouse is convicted of adultery, or where a spouse is diagnosed with a serious transmissible disease.

A wife whose marriage was never consummated can also seek separation if her husband fails to pay the prompt portion of her dowry despite having the means or after a court-ordered deadline lapses.

Where a marriage has broken down through mutual discord (“prejudice and dissension”), the law empowers the court to appoint two arbitrators, traditionally one from each family, to attempt reconciliation before any separation is finalised, reflecting the law’s broader instruction under Article 98 that courts must attempt reconciliation before ordering separation in any case.

Custody is treated as a distinct right from guardianship. The custodian raises and cares for the child day to day, while the guardian of the person retains other decision-making authority.

Article 146 lays out a strict order of priority for custody, starting with the mother, then extending through a long list of maternal and paternal female relatives, and only if none qualify to male relatives in the order they would inherit.

The law fixes a default age limit.

Custody exercised by women ends when a boy turns eleven and a girl turns thirteen, unless a court extends it in the child’s interest, at which point custody generally passes to the father or the next qualified guardian.

Both parents retain visitation rights regardless of who holds custody, and the law bars a custodial mother from relocating a child abroad, or even between UAE cities in some circumstances, without the other parent’s consent or a judge’s approval.

Book Three: Legal Capacity and Guardianship

This section addresses who the law treats as lacking full legal capacity, minors, individuals found to be of unsound mind, prodigal spenders, and the “absent” or “lost” (Articles 159–160 and 233–234) and sets out how guardians are appointed over both a protected person and their property, including the accounting obligations placed on any guardian handling a minor’s assets.

Book Four: Wills

A will, per Article 240, is a disposition of an estate that takes effect only after death.

The law caps testamentary freedom in line with classical Islamic inheritance principles. Under Article 243, a will can only dispose of up to one-third of the estate after debts are settled, unless the legally entitled heirs consent to a larger share being honoured.

Book Five: Estates and Inheritance

The final book governs how a deceased person’s estate defined broadly as all property and financial rights left behind is distributed.

Inheritance under Article 313 is described as an imperative devolution of property to the legally recognised heirs upon death, following the fixed-share system of Islamic inheritance law, with the courts responsible for verifying claims, resolving disputes among heirs, and liquidating the estate where necessary.

Why the Law Still Matters

Federal Law No. 28 of 2005 was, in effect, the UAE’s first attempt to give its family courts a single, comprehensive, written code rather than relying purely on judicial interpretation of religious sources.

Its structure, five books moving from marriage through separation, capacity, wills and inheritance still frames how personal status cases move through the UAE court system today, even as the country has since carved out parallel civil options for non-Muslim residents.

For anyone navigating marriage, divorce, custody or inheritance matters connected to the UAE, this 2005 statute remains the starting point.

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