Article 35 of the Saudi Civil Defense Law

This article is one of the usual final provisions in Saudi laws, and its purpose is to prevent conflict between legal rules. It provides that the issuance of the Civil Defense Law repeals everything that conflicts with its provisions.

In practice this means:

• If there is an earlier provision that conflicts with what the Civil Defense Law says, the Civil Defense Law is applied on the point of conflict.
• The repeal is limited to what conflicts only; the article does not repeal all other rules, but specifically what conflicts with the provisions of this Law.
• The article does not name particular texts that were repealed, so determining what was repealed requires comparing each earlier provision with the provisions of the Law.

This article comes within the group of final provisions in the Law: Article 34 makes the interpretation of the Law for the Council of Ministers, and Article 36 provides for publishing the Law in the Official Gazette and its taking effect six months after its publication. If a disagreement arises about the meaning of a provision in this Law, its interpretation goes back to the Council of Ministers.

The article imposes no direct obligation on individuals or facilities, but it helps someone who finds himself facing two conflicting rules in civil defense matters. In such a case a lawyer specializing in administrative matters can be consulted to determine the applicable provision.