In a country where East meets West and modernism mixes with tradition, a permanent dialogue between cultures has been established, increasingly blurring legal boundaries for business owners. Today, the United Arab Emirates seem to be oscillating between Islamic shari’a and Western jurisprudence, with a business often left in a haze upon the death of one of its owners. Executive talked to lawyers and specialists to help make sense of the UAE inheritance system. In the UAE, the transfer of legal ownership of a deceased’s assets to his heirs is built primarily on Islamic law, based on religious texts, mainly the Qur’an and the Sunna. Far from being a codified law, shari’a is subject to various interpretations and is often the source of much controversy. While shari’a is applied to UAE nationals, the UAE Civil Code also rules that, “inheritance shall be governed by the law prevailing in the country of
