How a family governance document acquires force, and how it stops having any

A family charter is described in Article 6 of UAE Federal Decree-Law No. 37 of 2022 concerning Family Businesses. Article 1 defines the Family Charter as a written document that regulates the governance of family affairs related to the family business and the family's relationship with that business. Article 6(1) provides that the family may have a charter that includes rules for family ownership, goals and values, mechanisms for evaluating shares, methods of profit distribution, educating and qualifying family members to work in the business and its subsidiaries, considering family disputes related to the business, and other rules and provisions.

Four features of the text determine how much force such a document carries.

• Approval and amendment. Article 6(4) provides that the charter is approved or amended by a majority of the Family Council members, and if the Council does not exist, by a majority of the family partners. The route by which the document changes therefore depends on whether a council exists.
• Hierarchy. Article 6(3) provides that where the articles of association and the charter conflict, the provisions of the articles apply, and any provision conflicting with the articles or the Decree-Law is repealed from the charter. Article 5(1) requires the articles themselves to accord with the Decree-Law and with the Commercial Companies Law or free zone legislation as the case may be.
• Reach over new participants. Article 7(4) addresses a person who joins the family business accepting the provisions of its articles of association and charter.
• Filing. Article 6(5) allows the family business to deposit a copy of the charter in the register, with the manner of deposit and its controls and requirements to be issued by decision of the Minister. Article 6(6) requires the Ministry to prepare one or more guide charters for the family to consult, and Article 5(2) requires it to establish guide articles of association.

Article 22 governs what happens when the drafting runs out. Article 22(1) provides that in the absence or ambiguity of explicit text in the articles of association or the charter, both are interpreted in accordance with the common intention of the founders of the family business and its partners, and the goals for which it was established, in a manner that helps its continuity, development, good management and smooth transition, keeps it away from conflicts, and preserves it from one generation to the next. Article 22(2) provides that where either document includes a condition or provision inconsistent with the Decree-Law, with legislation in force or with public order, the document remains valid and the condition or provision is invalid.

Article 6(2) shows how a clause can depend on a body that may not exist. It provides that the charter may specify the minimum educational qualifications and practical experience that partners and family members shall have in order to work in the business and its subsidiaries, and that compliance with those standards is subject to audit by a committee affiliated with the Family Council, if any. The words "if any" carry the point. Where no family council exists, there is no committee to conduct that audit, and the clause produces no outcome that its omission would not equally produce.

The same dependency appears in Article 6(4). Where no council exists, amendment of the charter falls to a majority of the family partners rather than to the body the document may name.

Interpretation under Article 22(1) reaches for the common intention of the founders and partners. Where a body named in a document has met, the record of its decisions forms part of the history of that document's application. Where it has never met, no such record exists.

The official description of the regime treats succession plans and governance structures as documented in the articles of association and an optional family charter, which places the charter alongside the constitutional document rather than above it. Advisory work published in Dubai in August 2025 describes a review of existing family constitutions that evaluates the maturity of governance processes and identifies gaps and risks, which indicates that the distance between a document and its use is examined as a subject in its own right.

Sources, all retrieved 11 August 2026:

• Federal Decree by Law No. 37 of 2022 Concerning the Family Businesses, full text, UAE Legislation portal: https://uaelegislation.gov.ae/en/legislations/1608
• Ministry of Economy and Tourism, Family Business page: https://www.moet.gov.ae/en/family-business
• Dubai Media Office, launch of three family business advisory services, 5 August 2025: https://www.mediaoffice.ae/en/news/2025/august/05-08/dubai-centre-for-family-businesses

This content is educational and is written with law firms. It describes mechanisms and does not recommend any of them. The family should take its own legal advice on its own facts. Nothing here states or implies that the programme has verified or endorsed any structure, document or body.