IN many of my previous articles, I have had dealt with the importance of improving the legislative environment, the last of which were two articles published in Okaz newspaper on the topics — Law and the Saudi Vision, and the draft Civil Status Law.

It was an immense pleasure and joy for me to go through the statement of Crown Prince Muhammad Bin Salman when he said: “The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has taken serious steps in the past few years toward developing its legislative environment, and these steps, include adopting new laws and reforming existing ones."

"They are meant to preserve rights, consolidate the principles of justice and transparency, protect human rights, achieve comprehensive and sustainable development and reinforce the Kingdom’s global competitiveness through procedural and institutional references that are objective and clearly identified.”

The Crown Prince is taking us to the future by patronizing the development of the legislative environment. The success of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030 depends on the laws that accompany this modern boom. In the absence of any updating and development of the laws and regulations that govern all sectors, we will encounter obstacles and there will be a dichotomy between reality and what is hoped to be achieved.

Here, the problem lies in the inability of some people to depart from the jurisprudential concepts that were relevant for their time, and are no longer relevant for this time of the virtual world, featuring fast scientific progress, artificial intelligence, human genomics, and nanotechnology.

The well-known thinker Sadik Al Nihoum says: “It’s astonishing that the Arabs can neither separate from the past nor deny it. They are also unable to separate from life, and hence they remained confused on the suspended bridge between the present and the past.”

Modernization and development should not confine simply to enacting modern laws and regulations. Rather, it must reach education, training, and culture.

Hence it is imperative to develop the judiciary as well as to pay attention to its organs with the provision of administrative capabilities and human cadres so as to enable it to raise the degree of competence, monitoring, follow-up, and performance.

Prosperity and development are closely related to law. As society develops, the law also develops because it is a reflection of factors and conditions within the society, and the law articulates the conscience of the society.

The Crown Prince’s statement reflects the necessity that there must be a comprehensive, flexible and fair system aimed at achieving the well-being of the human being and society, and that is based on equality, respect for others, and the rejection of hatred, sectarianism, racism, and regionalism. As the Crown Prince puts it, it will consolidate the principles of justice and transparency, and ensure the protection of human rights, and comprehensive development.