Qatari law Essay

Qatar is located in a peninsula jutting out 100 miles into the Persian disconnection from Saudi-Arabian Arabia. The awkward is mainly barren and is located with Saudi Arabia on its west and United Arab Emirates on its southern border. Qatar occupies a sum come to playing field of 11,437 squ be kilometers. (Infoplease, 2007) Climate see in this portion is chiefly hot and dry due to the forego landscape. The air is usually humid still is acerb during the summer time. graphicly occurring disasters experienced in the domain argon haze, dust storms and sandstorms.Qatar has only 1% of its land argona that is classified as arable eon 5% of the land is used for raising pastures. Qatar has an estimated creation of 1,000,000 (in 2007), and approximately 200,000 ar citizens. Nearly all Qatari profess Islam approximately 95% of the cosmos. Majority of the people migrated due to the availability of employ manpowert for the inunct color diligence in Qatar. Arabic serves as t he official phraseology time English and other languages argon withal spoken in Qatar. Many Qataris trace prat their roots to natives of the Arabian Peninsula.Migratory tribes have colonised in Qatar during the 8th century. There were in like manner migration from gulf Emirates and as well as Persian merchants. To daylight, closely of Qatars inhabitants cluster in Doha, the capital city. Foreigners with impermanent status comprise 52% of the get along cosmos and make up approximately 89% of the total workforce. In 2004, the province had a total population of approximately 1,000,000 (in 2007), of whom approximately 200,000 were believed to be citizens. Of the citizen population, Shia Muslims flyer for approximately 3 percent and Sunni Muslims comprise the stay 97 percent.The volume of the estimated 800,000 non-citizens are psyches from atomic effect 16 and South East Asiatic and Arab countries working on impermanent employment contracts in most cases without their a ccompanying family members. They are of the following faiths Sunni Muslims, Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Buddhists, and Bahais. Most foreign workers and their families live darling the major employment centers of Doha, Al Khor, Messaeed, and Dukhan. The Christian community is a diverse mix of Indians, Filipinos, Europeans, Arabs, and Americans.It includes Catholic, Orthodox, Coptic, Anglican, and other Protestant denominations. The Hindu community is some exclusively Indian, while Buddhists include south and East Asians. Most Bahais in Qatar may come from nearby Iran. Religion is not indicated on topic identity cards and passports, nor is it a criterion for citizenship in Qatar according to the Nationality Law. However, Qatari citizens are either Sunni or Shia Muslims with the exception of a Bahai and Syrian Christian and their respective families who were disposed(p) citizenship.Shia, both citizens and foreigners, may attend a keen number of Shia mosques. There is some restrict ion of the apparitional liberty of Christians. No foreign missi sensationr groups operate openly in the uncouth. Culture Qatar explicitly uses Sunni law as the basis of its governance, and the vast majority of its citizens follow Hanbali Madhhab. Hanbali (is one of the four schools (Madhhabs) of Fiqh or religious law within Sunni Islam (The other three are Hanafi, Maliki and Shafii).Sunni Muslims believe that all four schools have right guidance, and the differences between them lie not in the fundamentals of faith, but in finer judgments and jurisprudence, which are a result of the independent reasoning of the imams and the scholars who followed them. Because their individual methodologies of interpretation and extraction from the primary c inunct sources were different, they came to different judgments on particular matters. Qatari law When contrasted with other Arab states more than than(prenominal) as Saudi Arabia, for instance, Qatar has comparatively imperfect laws, bu t is still not as liberal as some of its neighbors like UAE or Bahrain.Women can legitimately drive in Qatar, whereas they may not in Saudi Arabia. The country has undergone a period of easiness and juvenileization after the current Emir of Qatar, Hamad hive away Khalifa Al-Thani, came to power after becoming Emir in place of his father. Under his rule, Qatar became the first Arab country in the Persian disconnection where women gained the right to vote. Also, women can fleece mostly as they please in prevalent (although in practice local Qatari women generally don the black abaya). Before the liberalization, it was taboo for men to wear shorts in public.The laws of Qatar tolerate alcoholic drink to a certain extent. However, public bars and nightclubs in Qatar operate only in expensive hotels and clubs, much like in the UAE and Bahrain, though the number of establishments has heretofore to equal that of UAE. Qatar has further been liberalized due to the 15th Asian Games, b ut is cautious of becoming too liberal in their law making the country workable weekend immigration from their westerly neighbor. Overall Qatar has moreover to reach the more western laws of UAE or Bahrain, and though course of studys are being made for more development, the government is cautious EconomyBefore the discovery of vegetable oil colour the parsimony of the Qatari region focused on fishing and pearling. After the introduction of the Japanese complaisant pearl into the world market in the mid-twenties and 1930s. Qatars pearling industry faltered. However, the discovery of oil reserves, first-class honours degree in the 1940s, completely transformed the states economy. Now the country has a high banal of living, with many social services offered to its citizens and all the creature comforts of any modern state Qatars national income primarily derives from oil and natural splash merchandises.The country has oil estimated at 15 one thousand billion barrel (2.4 km3), while mishandle reserves in the gargantuan north field (South Pars for Iran) which straddles the border with Iran and are almost as large as the peninsula itself are estimated to be between 800 900tcf (Trillion Cubic Feet 1tcf is equal to most 80 cardinal position of oil equivalent) (Anonymous, 2005). Qatars primary source of income relies on its oil reserves, which constitutes more than 30% of its Gross Domestic Product. An estimated reserve of 3. 7 billion barrels is predicted to last up to 23 eld with sustained level of output (Qatar Background, 2007).Qatar also has one of the worlds largest reserves for Natural assail, estimated to be more than 5% of the worlds total reserve or amounting to 7trillion cubic meters. These both natural resources constitutes the backbone of Qatars economy (Qatar, 2002). fossil oil industry in Qatar On 1935, a 75- social class oil concession was granted to Qatar Petroleum Company, which was owned by Anglo-Dutch, French and USA. At D ukhan, located at the western side of Qatar, high quality oil was discovered. anele exploitation was delayed due to the onset of origination War II and Qatar was only able to export oil during 1949.Due to the increase in tax from oil export during the 1950s and 1960s, Qatar entered the start of its modern history. This was the start of Qatars prosperity, rapid immigration was experienced due to employment brought astir(predicate) by the oil industry and substantial social changes was experienced. When UK announced in 1968 the policy of ending the treaty relationship with the Gulf Shiekdoms, failed talks with the other sheikdoms in a plan to form the United Arab Emirates resulted to Qatar declaring independence on family 3, 1971.Oil still forms the cornerstone of Qatars economy well into the 1990s. Today Oil still accounts for about 62% of total government revenue. In 1973, income generated from oil end product and export gradually increased the countrys revenue. This has helpe d Qatar move from previously ranked as one of the worlds poorest countries into one of the highest per capita income in the world. In 2006, the country has a per capita income of $62,000, which is ranked as fifth in the world (Beureau_of_Eastern_Affairs, 2007).During the 1990s, OPEC or constitution of Petroleum Exporting Countries had lower oil production quotas resulting to fall in oil costs. The result was an inauspicious outlook in the international markets and reduced recompense in oil products led to recession in Qatar. Many small businesses were moved(p) and expatriate staffs were affected by massive lay off. However the country was able to regain economically by the recently 1990s and expatriate population have big(p) again. Qatars oil production is currently estimated around 835,000 barrels a day.It is expected to reach 1. 1 one million million barrels per day by the year 2009. With the current rate of producing oil, reserves in Qatar are expected to last up to more than 40 years. However Qatar has other resources that are also employ for production. Its proven reserves of natural gas are the third largest in the world. The gas reserves of North Fields in Qatar exceed more than 900 trillion cubic feet or 14% of the worlds total gas reserves. Qatar is the largest producer of Liquefied Natural Gas with more than 31 million metric wads per annum.By 2010, Qatar is expected to produce 77. 5 million metric tons per annum and will account for one third of the worlds LNG supply (Beureau_of_Eastern_Affairs, 2007). Qatars oil fields are estimated to be scummy by 2023. But with the discovery of natural gas in the Northern fields, Qatar economy received a great boost from gas reserves income generated from exportation of Liquefied Petroleum Gas. Currently Qatar exports gas to Korea, India and china via shipping lines while gas is delivered via pipelines to Kuwait, UAE and Bahrain. Exploration proto(prenominal) exploration took place in May 1935 as part of an agreement between the English-Persian Corporation and the beau of Qatar at that time Abdullah Bin Jassem Al-Thani to explore oil for a term of 75 years. The agreement was penalize by a corporation, which is later known as Qatar Oil Associated Corporation. Exploration, however, was adjourned due to border problems with the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, but eventually started in 1938 extensively ( body politic profile Qatar, 2008). In 1949, Qatar started to export oil finished Mesaieed port on the East Coast.The first exported amount of money was 80,000 tons on board President line drive on 31/12/1949 for a price of 5. 9 million Indian rupees received in 1951. Qatar developed its production speedily and in 1951, it reached 46,500 barrels a day compared to only 34,000 a day before that time (Energy and ResourcesSources and Definitions, 2003). The State of Qatar became number 11 among oil exporting countries in 1952, with a production of 67,700 barrels a day, i. e. , 0. 5% of world production. Consequently, oil revenue increased to 4. 2 million US dollars in 1951, and 12 US million dollars in 1952.