Bahrain Lawyer Registration Exam common mistakes
Bahrain Lawyer Registration Exam · Understand the traps and how to avoid them.
Citing general civil-law principles of contract (e.g., offer, acceptance, consideration) without grounding the analysis in the Bahraini Civil Code (Law No. 19 of 2001), such as articles on formation, defects of consent, or the mandatory rules on unfair terms.
Candidates often rely on common-law or comparative law training and treat the Bahraini Civil Code as a mere restatement of general principles, missing specific statutory provisions and their numbering.
What to do instead
For every obligations question, identify the controlling article of the Civil Code (e.g., Article 31 on offer and acceptance, Article 127 on defects of consent) and apply its exact wording. Memorise the article numbers and key Arabic legal terms for the core topics (formation, performance, breach, damages).
Confusing the types of commercial companies under Bahraini Commercial Companies Law (Law No. 21 of 2001) and misapplying the capital, liability, or governance rules for each (e.g., treating a W.L.L. as a joint stock company).
The law distinguishes several forms (joint liability, limited partnership, W.L.L., joint stock, single-person) with different minimum capital and management requirements; candidates memorise only one form or rely on foreign analogies.
What to do instead
Create a comparison table for each company type listing minimum capital, number of founders, liability of shareholders, management organs, and transfer restrictions. Practise fact patterns where the choice of form determines liability or validity of a transaction.
Treating criminal procedure as a mirror of civil procedure: e.g., assuming the defendant must prove innocence, or that the public prosecutor's investigation is optional rather than mandatory for serious offences.
Candidates transfer concepts from civil litigation (burden of proof on claimant) into criminal law, and underestimate the constitutional and statutory safeguards in the Criminal Procedure Law (Law No. 46 of 2002).
What to do instead
Revise the presumption of innocence (Article 20 of the Constitution), the mandatory nature of public prosecution for felonies, the rights of the accused during investigation, and the rules on arrest and detention. Answer criminal procedure questions by citing the specific article and stating the consequence of breach (nullity of evidence, etc.).
Missing procedural deadlines and the consequences of non-compliance in civil and commercial procedure (e.g., appeal periods, service of process, default judgment).
Deadlines in Bahraini civil procedure are short and strictly applied; candidates focus on substantive law and neglect the procedural calendar, or assume courts have discretion to extend.
What to do instead
Memorise the key time limits under the Civil and Commercial Procedure Law (e.g., 15 days for appeal from a default judgment, 30 days for ordinary appeal) and the rules on service. In practice questions, always begin by checking whether the procedural step was taken within time and identify the remedy if not.
Applying the Labour Law (Law No. 36 of 2012) without checking whether the Social Insurance Law (Law No. 8 of 2008) provides a parallel or exclusive remedy, and misstating the end-of-service benefits calculation.
Labour and social security are taught as separate subjects, but real disputes (e.g., termination indemnity, occupational injury) require coordinating both statutes; candidates also confuse the old and new labour laws.
What to do instead
For each labour problem, outline the statutory entitlement under the Labour Law (notice, severance, leave) and then check whether the Social Insurance Law covers the same risk (e.g., work injury compensation). Practise calculating end-of-service benefits using the formula in Article 116 of the Labour Law.
Ignoring the codified Personal Status Law (Law No. 19 of 2017) and instead applying general Sharia principles without citing the specific statutory article on marriage, divorce, custody, or inheritance.
Candidates may have studied classical fiqh and assume the code is merely declaratory; they miss that the 2017 law introduced specific procedural and substantive rules for the Jaafari and Sunni communities.
What to do instead
Memorise the structure of the Personal Status Law and the key articles for each topic (e.g., conditions of marriage, khul', custody age limits). When answering, state the article number and explain how the code resolves the issue, noting any differences between the two schools where relevant.
Assuming land registration is merely administrative and failing to apply the Real Property Registration Law (Law No. 3 of 2014) on the conclusive effect of registration, bona fide purchaser protection, and the cadastral survey.
Candidates treat registration as a formality and overlook that in Bahrain the register is conclusive evidence of title, which affects disputes over ownership and mortgages.
What to do instead
Study the 2014 law's provisions on first registration, transfer, mortgage, and the effect of registration against third parties. In problem questions, always ask whether the transaction was registered and what the register shows, then apply the statutory presumption.
Treating the Constitution as a preamble and failing to use it as a direct source of rights and grounds for judicial review of administrative acts (e.g., ultra vires, proportionality, legitimate expectation).
Candidates focus on the Administrative Court's statute and forget that the Constitution (2002) and the Constitutional Court's jurisdiction under Law No. 27 of 2017 provide substantive review standards.
What to do instead
For administrative law questions, structure the answer around (1) legality (ultra vires), (2) procedural fairness, and (3) constitutional rights. Cite the relevant constitutional article (e.g., Article 20 on due process) and the Constitutional Court's role when a statute is challenged.
Mixing up the roles of the Bahrain Bar Society and the Ministry of Justice in professional discipline, and failing to identify the specific disciplinary sanctions and the duty of confidentiality.
Candidates memorise general ethics but not the Bahraini regulatory framework (Law No. 36 of 1980 on the legal profession, as amended) and the Bar Society's disciplinary powers.
What to do instead
Learn the disciplinary process: who investigates, who imposes sanctions (warning, suspension, striking off), and the appeal route. Practise scenario questions on conflicts of interest, client confidentiality, and fees, citing the relevant articles of the legal profession law and the Bar Society's code.
In international and comparative law questions, applying foreign law or treaty provisions without checking Bahrain's reservations and the monist/dualist status of treaties in Bahraini law.
Candidates assume treaties are automatically part of domestic law or that Bahrain has no reservations; they also confuse civil-law and common-law approaches without noting Bahrain's civil-law base.
What to do instead
For each treaty (e.g., New York Convention, WTO agreements), check Bahrain's instrument of ratification and any reservations. State whether the treaty has been incorporated by statute and how Bahraini courts apply it. In comparative questions, explicitly contrast the Bahraini civil-law position with the common-law position rather than assuming they are the same.