Federal Decree-Law No. 22 of 2025 introduced a number of amendments to the UAE Civil Procedure Law, including a fundamental change to the formal requirements for filing appeals. One of the most significant of these changes is found in the amended Article 164.
Under the revised provision, an appeal must be filed by way of a memorandum deposited with the Case Management Office of the competent Court of Appeal. Crucially, that memorandum must now include the particulars of the appealed judgment, its date, the relief sought, and , most importantly, the grounds of appeal. Where these requirements are not met, the appeal is to be ruled inadmissible.
The amended wording leaves little room for procedural manoeuvre. Unlike the previous regime, Article 164 no longer permits appellants to file an appeal in a purely formal manner and defer the submission of reasons to a later stage. The former paragraph that allowed grounds
In the previous article, we discussed the recent amendments to the UAE Civil Procedure Law and the clear move away from purely formal appeals towards a more structured and reasoned appellate process.
The position has now been judicially confirmed in Dubai.
The General Authority of the Dubai Court of Cassation issued Resolution No. 1 of 2026, settling the question whether an appeal may be filed initially in a purely formal manner, with the reasons to follow at a later stage.
The answer, according to the Dubai Court of Cassation, is clear. It may not.
Following the amendments introduced by Federal Decree-Law No. 22 of 2025, and in particular Article 164 thereof, the Dubai Court of Cassation has confirmed that an appeal of any kind filed before the Dubai courts must include its substantive grounds at the time of filing. An appeal limited to formal data, without setting out the reasons for challenging the judgment, is inadmissible and liable to be rejected by the court on its own motion.
This position is not merely inferred from the amended wording of Article 164. It is expressly reinforced by the deletion of the former paragraph that had allowed appellants to defer the submission of reasons until the date of the first hearing before the Case Management Office or the court. That procedural flexibility no longer exists under the current amendment.
The General Authority of the Dubai Court of Cassation issued Resolution No. 1 of 2026 further states that the appeal sheet itself must contain, at the time of filing, a statement of the appealed judgment, its date, the appellant’s requests, and the reasons for the appeal set out in sufficient detail. The practice of submitting a subsequent memorandum solely to introduce the grounds of appeal is no longer permissible before the Dubai courts, even if the statutory appeal period has not yet expired.
What remains permissible, however, is refinement rather than substitution. While the original appeal must stand on its own and contain the core grounds relied upon, the appellant may still amend or supplement those grounds in accordance with the general procedural rules, provided the original application itself remains unchanged.
From a practical perspective, this decision brings an end, at least in Dubai, to filing appeals merely to meet the statutory deadline, with the intention of submitting the grounds at a later stage. Appellate litigation before the Dubai courts is no longer a two-step exercise in which form precedes substance. The filing of an appeal is now a substantive procedural act that requires legal analysis, articulation of error, and procedural readiness from the outset. Practitioners appearing before the Dubai courts will need to recalibrate timelines, internal workflows, and client expectations accordingly.
While Resolution No. 1 of 2026 was issued specifically by the Dubai Court of Cassation, it closely aligns with the legislative intent underpinning the 2025 federal amendments. It therefore provides a strong indication of how similar issues may be approached in practice, even if its direct precedential effect remains confined to Dubai.
For advice on preparing and filing appeals under amended Article 164 of the UAE Civil Procedure Law, including the requirement to submit substantive grounds at the time of filing, please contact the author Merline Dsouza at merline@alsuwaidi.ae.