The United Arab Emirates has announced a significant update to its civil law system, lowering the legal age of adulthood from 21 to 18 under a new Federal Decree-Law introducing the revised Civil Transactions Law. The change shifts full legal capacity from 21 Hijri years to 18 Gregorian years, aiming to unify legal age standards and align civil law with juvenile, labour, and criminal legislation.
While 18-year-olds in the UAE already have the right to marry, work and drive, the reform could extend to other areas, including regulations such as the legal drinking age. The law also lowers the age at which minors can manage their financial assets from 18 Hijri years to 15 Gregorian years, a move intended to encourage youth entrepreneurship and economic participation.
The legislation replaces lunar age calculations with the Gregorian calendar, meaning the previous threshold effectively applied to those around 20 and a half years old. As the largest federal law enacted in the UAE, it establishes a comprehensive framework governing legal acts and contracts, strengthens legal capacity and free will, introduces disclosure requirements during pre-contractual negotiations, and updates regulations covering nonprofit companies, sales, insurance, and works contracts.
