Law of Qatar

Qatar is a unitary, semi-constitutional monarchy in which the emir holds nearly all executive, legislative, and judicial authority under the Constitution of Qatar, adopted by referendum in 2003 after decades as a British protectorate from 1916 to 1971. The constitution names sharia as the main source of legislation, but in practice the law of Qatar is a mixture of civil law and sharia, with sharia applied specifically to family law, inheritance, and certain criminal offenses such as adultery, robbery, and murder; codified family law was introduced in 2006.