Family-law guidance by situation
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UAE family law does not apply one rule to everyone. What applies to a particular family depends on the legal regime that governs the marriage or the estate, on the documents that exist, on where the case belongs, and on whether another country is involved. Nationality, language and religion matter only where the law itself makes them matter, and they never decide the outcome on their own.
The pages below group the questions that come up most often for people in a particular situation. They are a way into the same body of law, not a separate body of law. A British parent and an Emirati parent asking about custody are asking about the same statute; what differs is usually which route is open to them, which documents they already hold, and which court will hear the matter.
How these pages are organised
Each page starts from a situation rather than from a legal category, then points to the substantive guidance that answers it. Nothing on them promises a different legal right because of who you are. Where a rule genuinely turns on personal status, on the law of a home country, or on whether a civil or Sharia-based route applies, the page says so and links to the provision.
If your situation spans more than one of these pages, read whichever describes your circumstances most closely and follow the links from it. The underlying guidance is the same.
By country and language
These pages deal with the practical questions that arise when a family’s documents, marriage or assets sit partly outside the UAE: recognition of a foreign marriage or divorce, translation and attestation, and how a case is affected when one party lives abroad.
By family circumstance
These pages deal with the questions that arise from the shape of the family rather than from where its members come from: which personal-status regime applies, what happens when parents follow different faiths, and how the civil route in Abu Dhabi sits alongside the federal personal-status route.
By role in the matter
Family proceedings look different depending on whether you are the parent a child lives with, the parent seeking contact, the spouse seeking maintenance, or the spouse being asked to pay it. These pages set out what each position usually involves. They do not suggest that the law favours one position over another.
Where to start if none of these fits
Most matters are better approached by subject than by audience. If you already know what the issue is, go to the guidance on divorce, child custody and guardianship, inheritance and estate planning, protection and urgent matters, marriage or international family law. The route finder asks a short series of questions and points to the guidance that matches the answers.