From 20 to 28 September 2006 a staff member of the Max Planck Institute visited Libya in order to gather information on developments in Libyan constitutional law and to assess the institutional frame and the political scope for further investigations on this subject. In addition, numerous talks were held, above all with academics and law professionals.
The Institute’s interest in Libya is based on the state’s unusual constitutional structure. The political decision-making process takes place on so-called “Basic People’s Congresses” to which the whole Libyan electorate belongs. Every representation of the people through representatives, e.g. as in a parliamentary democracy, is seen as a falsification of the will of the people. Hence, there is no parliament, no political parties or any government in the conventional sense. 350 “Basic People’s Congresses” report their decisions through representatives with imperative mandate to the „General People’s Congress” which convenes several times a year to coordinate the decision-making. This leads to high levels of legal insecurity and uncertainty. Legally relevant decisions may be abolished within a year’s time. A regular constitution never came about, although it had been announced in the revolutionary constitutional proclamation of 11.12.1969. Four laws from 1977, 1988, 1991 and 2001 are containing quasi-constitutional norms. Another factor of instability is the assignment of individuals to government offices such as ministries (called “secretariats”): Any position may be reassigned at any given time. Besides, the law-like decisions of the People’s Congresses are in practice only insufficiently prepared. The participants feel often inadequately informed and there is frequently no time for the necessary technical discussions.
The desire for a reform of the political system was already perceptible in the 1990s and has clearly increased in recent years. In talks with lawyers, businessmen and civil servants it became apparent that their primary concerns are the strengthening of the legal security and the fight of judicial corruption. A constitution in the conventional sense is by many seen as a necessary step towards the solution of the different problems. In 1998/1999 a commission developed a constitutional draft which was then blocked and not handed over to the “Basis People’s Congresses”. Yet here are reform efforts also in the present. In March 2009 the son of the revolutionary leader Muammar al-Qaddhafi, Saif al-Islam al-Qaddhafi, announced the introduction of a constitution. Until today a draft has however not been presented to the public. Dr. Karim Mezran has contributed an article on Libyan constitutional law to the volume edited by Dr. Rainer Grote and Dr. Tilmann Röder, “Constitutionalism in Islamic Countries: Between Upheaval and Continuity” (Oxford University Press, 2010).
Further publications of the Max Planck Institute on the subject are planned.
| Organisational status: |
Institutional
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| Status of Project: |
Ongoing
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Head of Section:
Prof. Dr. Rüdiger Wolfrum