Article 6 of the Saudi Emergency Law

This article sets out who declares a state of emergency and how. The declaration rests on three elements:

1. The occurrence of the emergency event: which under Article 2 is any event that causes substantial harm to individuals, critical infrastructure, security, the economy and the like, or an imminent threat of that.
2. The King's assessment: that the King considers that the event requires declaring a state of emergency because of it. Not every emergency event necessarily leads to a declaration of a state of emergency; that is left to the King's assessment.
3. The instrument of declaration: a royal order.

The relationship between this article and Article 5 is clear: the Supreme Emergency Council is competent to recommend declaring a state of emergency, stating its reasons, duration and geographic scope, but the declaration itself belongs to the King. This article does not provide that the recommendation is a necessary condition for the declaration.

The declaration results in the existence of a state of emergency in the sense of Article 1: the legal state that requires temporary exceptional measures to deal with the emergency event. It then becomes possible to issue emergency orders under Article 12.

Article 7 follows, setting what the royal order declaring a state of emergency must contain, such as the emergency event, the date it takes effect, the duration and the geographic scope. Anyone whose activity is affected by the declaration of a state of emergency and who needs to understand its effect can consult a lawyer who specializes in administrative cases.