ADGM Courts: Jurisdiction, Law and How Cases Work

The ADGM Courts are the independent common law courts of Abu Dhabi Global Market, a financial free zone on Al Maryah Island established under federal and Abu Dhabi legislation in 2013. They are unusual in the region because they apply English common law and the rules of equity directly, by operation of the Application of English Law Regulations 2015, rather than applying a locally drafted code that borrows from English law.

That single design choice explains most of what follows: the way jurisdiction is framed, the way precedent is used, and why commercial parties with no other connection to Abu Dhabi sometimes choose the ADGM Courts on purpose.

What are the ADGM Courts?

ADGM was created as a financial free zone with its own civil and commercial legal system. The courts sit within it and are separate from the Abu Dhabi onshore courts, which apply UAE federal and Abu Dhabi law in Arabic within a civil law tradition. The ADGM Courts operate in English.

The structure has two tiers. The Court of First Instance is divided into a Commercial and Civil Division, a Real Property Division, an Employment Division and a Small Claims Division, with small claims appeals going to the Civil Division. Above it sits the Court of Appeal. The procedural framework comes from the ADGM Courts, Civil Evidence, Judgments, Enforcement and Judicial Appointments Regulations 2015, drawn from English, Scottish and Australian federal sources and adapted for ADGM.

The bench is drawn largely from senior common law judges. Filing and hearing fees are set by the courts and published in their own schedule, so check the current version rather than a secondary source.

Which law do the ADGM Courts apply?

English common law, equity and a schedule of English statutes apply in ADGM of their own force. ADGM did not write its own contract law, tort law or trusts law. It adopted the English body wholesale and then legislated separately in the areas where a financial centre needs its own rules, such as companies, insolvency, data protection and financial services regulation.

The practical consequence is that an English authority is not merely persuasive material in ADGM. The ADGM Court of Appeal has addressed the binding quality of English precedent in the zone, and its reasoning has leaned on certainty and predictability as the point of the exercise. For a practitioner, this means English textbooks and English case law can be used in the ordinary way, which is a genuine saving in time and cost on a complex commercial dispute.

It also means the ADGM position can move when English law moves. Parties choosing ADGM are choosing a living body of law, not a snapshot.

When do the ADGM Courts have jurisdiction?

The core of the jurisdiction is territorial and institutional. The courts hear civil and commercial claims connected with ADGM: disputes involving ADGM establishments, contracts performed wholly or partly in the zone, transactions conducted within it, and matters arising out of ADGM legislation. Employment claims by staff of ADGM entities and disputes over real property in the zone fall within the specialist divisions.

The ADGM Founding Law was amended in 2020, by Abu Dhabi Law No. 12 of 2020, and that amendment is the reference point for the current jurisdictional picture. It confirmed exclusive jurisdiction over specified civil and commercial claims connected with ADGM, and it dealt with two questions that had been live: opt-in jurisdiction, and the use of the courts as a conduit.

Can parties opt in to the ADGM Courts?

Yes. The 2020 amendments confirmed that parties may agree to confer jurisdiction on the ADGM Courts even where they have no other nexus to ADGM, and that parties need not have a connection to the zone in order to choose an ADGM seat for an arbitration. This removed real uncertainty that had existed before.

An opt-in clause should be drafted carefully. The usual points apply: say whether the jurisdiction is exclusive, be consistent with the governing law clause and with any arbitration agreement, and consider service. A clause that names the ADGM Courts while the substantive contract is governed by the law of somewhere else is workable but will produce a trial of foreign law rather than the straightforward application of English principles that was probably the point.

Opting in does not import everything. The 2020 amendments also limited the conduit use of the courts: an ADGM court is not a route for enforcing a judgment that originated outside Abu Dhabi or an award made outside ADGM, and enforcement should be pursued where the assets are.

How is an ADGM judgment enforced?

Inside ADGM, the court enforces its own judgments through its enforcement machinery. Outside the zone but within Abu Dhabi, there is a reciprocal enforcement mechanism between the ADGM Courts and the Abu Dhabi courts. That arrangement began as a memorandum of understanding and was given statutory footing by the 2020 amendments, which improved certainty considerably.

Enforcement in the other emirates runs through the ordinary domestic recognition process. Enforcement outside the UAE depends on the law of the enforcing state and on any treaty in play, and should be assessed by reference to that state rather than assumed. Where a counterparty’s assets sit in a jurisdiction with no reliable route for recognising a UAE judgment, an arbitration clause and a New York Convention award may still be the better answer.

How do the ADGM Courts compare with the DIFC Courts?

They are close cousins and are often treated as interchangeable. They are not.

• Source of law. ADGM applies English common law directly. The DIFC has enacted its own body of DIFC laws, which are common law in character and heavily English in influence, but they are DIFC statutes and are construed as such.
• Emirate. ADGM sits in Abu Dhabi and interacts with the Abu Dhabi courts. The DIFC sits in Dubai and interacts with the Dubai courts, including through a judicial body set up to resolve conflicts of jurisdiction between the two.
• Opt-in. Both permit it. The DIFC Courts have allowed opt-in since 2011 and have a longer body of case law on how such clauses are construed. The ADGM position was clarified more recently.
• Maturity. The DIFC Courts have been operating since the mid 2000s and have a deeper set of reported decisions. ADGM is newer, with a smaller but growing body of authority.

Neither is inherently better. The choice usually turns on where the counterparty and the assets are, what other agreements in the structure say, and whether the transaction is already anchored in one zone.

Where do people get caught out?

The common failure is a jurisdiction clause drafted on autopilot. Naming a free zone court in a contract that has no connection to that zone was risky before 2020 and is now workable in ADGM, but only if the clause is clear and consistent with the rest of the agreement.

The second is enforcement. A judgment is only as useful as the place it can be enforced, and the conduit restriction means ADGM will not be used to route a foreign judgment into the UAE system. Work backwards from where the assets sit.

The third is assuming ADGM and the DIFC are one regime. They have separate laws, separate rules, separate fee schedules and separate registries. Advice given for one should not be applied to the other without checking.

This article is general information about UAE law as at September 2026 and is not legal advice. The position varies by emirate and by free zone, and it changes often. Take advice on your own facts before you act.

Legal Desire has published legal industry news and analysis since 2012. This article is part of our UAE desk, which tracks the laws, courts and regulators of the Emirates for lawyers and in-house teams.