Dubai International Financial Centre.
A federally-established financial free zone operating under a body of law modelled on English common law principles.
Its courts are independent of the federal judiciary; its financial regulator, the DFSA, maintains recognition arrangements with the principal international counterparts.
— The jurisdiction · its institutions
Final tier.
Commercial; Technology and Construction.
Claims under AED 500,000.
Established by federal decree in 2004, the DIFC is a financial free zone in central Dubai operating under a body of law modelled on English common law principles. Unlike ADGM, English law does not apply directly. Rather, DIFC has enacted a substantial corpus of its own legislation drawing on, and adapting from, the common law tradition. Its courts are independent of the federal judiciary, conduct proceedings in English, and are widely regarded for their commercial expertise. The DFSA regulates financial-services activity within the zone under a framework that maintains recognition arrangements with the principal international counterparts; corporate, foundation, and trust matters fall to the DIFC Registrar of Companies and the DIFC Authority.
Our DIFC practice serves clients with cross-border or institutional requirements that benefit from a common-law forum: Sharia-compliant financing structures, DIFC foundation establishment and governance, and corporate-secretarial mandates for entities that require independent oversight. Where the matter is contentious, the DIFC Courts offer a procedural environment that is, in substance and in feel, that of a Commercial Court familiar to international counsel.
— Our work · in this jurisdiction
Corporate & Transactions.
- DIFC mudaraba financing structure.
- DIFC foundation establishment and governance.
- Corporate-secretarial mandate for an institutional entity.
The choice of forum is rarely incidental.
DIFC is the jurisdiction in which international capital meets the federation. The work is to ensure the structures we draft are coherent in both registers, and that they hold under both.