A Reformative Legal Vision for the Kingdom: The Adoption of Rules of Discovery in the Civil Procedural System of Saudi Arabia: Considering the Example of the United States Discovery Regime

Abstract

Can the United States civil discovery regime be adopted in Saudi Arabia? If so, to what extent? This dissertation examines whether the Saudi Civil Procedure Law might adopt the United States discovery regime to resolve existing problems with unreasonable delays, shortage of judges, and the loss of people's rights. This dissertation then addresses some advantages and challenges of such adoption and proposes solutions for these challenges. This research provides a comparative analysis of both legal systems and explores the possibility of adopting discovery in Saudi Arabia. It studies the status quo in both jurisdictions to explain how to employ discovery from the United States in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation considers the discovery absence in Saudi Arabia and the problems caused by this absence. This research also examines the discovery rules in the United States' Federal Rules of Civil Procedure to determine whether adopting discovery would be beneficial to the Saudi legal system. Furthermore, it provides recommendations about how Saudi Arabia should reform its civil procedure system by adopting a discovery regime. This research seeks to understand discovery inefficiencies in Saudi Arabia through a comparison with the United States discovery. It conducts a literature review concerning civil procedure in both jurisdictions to understand the applicability of discovery in Saudi Arabia. It explains how discovery would resolve some legal problems in Saudi Arabia. This dissertation explains how adopting pretrial discovery would help courts provide for the exchange of legal materials. It also addresses how the pretrial exchange of materials would shorten the length and complexity of trials and assist with judicial procedures. This research examines some scholarship by both critics and proponents of the United States discovery regime. It also provides some legal methods to adopt discovery in the Saudi legal system. This dissertation concludes that Saudi Arabia should adopt a discovery regime like the United States regime. This adoption, however, must be with greater tribunal involvement in discovery and a stricter discovery scope. It also concludes that parties must show valid reasons to request discoverable materials, and requesters must be responsible for the discovery expenses.