British law and regulatory practice are the order of the day in the Gulf of Arabia's newest financial hub.

The Abu Dhabi Global Market is moving into offshore financial services this year. The jurisdiction at present focuses on oil and gas but it hopes to remedy this with the ADGM, its free-trade zone which, according to reports was 'created' in 2013 but has not yet been 'launched'. Cabinet Resolution No 4 of 2013 called for the setting-up of the financial free zone on Al Maryah Island and Law No 4 of 2013 established the ADGM and its board of directors as its authority.

The big news is that the ADGM is eschewing the Code Napoleon for English common law as its legal base. This is largely an acceptance of the fact that most offshore centres, or at least the most successful, are rooted in common law or some approximation to it. The free-trade zone is aiming high from the very start, proclaiming its desire to be regulated to the highest degree. Last month it published six discussion documents on the subject of its future operation. It aims to have its own courts, tribunals and tax regime and wants to compete with Dubai - a lofty ambition.

In one of its consultative documents, it says: "English common law, as it stands from time to time, will govern matters such as contracts, tort, trusts, equitable remedies, unjust enrichment, damages, conflicts of laws, security, and personal property."

Abu Dhabi and the United Arab Emirates civil and commercial law will not apply in ADGM, but the federal criminal law of the UAE will. British, Caribbean, Australian and New Zealand law firms, ex-regulators and compliance consultants are reportedly rubbing their hands in anticipation. Sir Hector Sants, one British former regulator who has seen better days, has been appointed the chief advisor to the chairman, Ahmed Al Sayegh. The ADGM board seems to have fought shy of giving Sants any executive responsibility after his stressful breakdown at Barclays.