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Egypt’s Constitution in Question
In: Middle East Law and GovernanceIn well-functioning democracies, constitutions are revered as the unwavering backbones of law and order and permanent reservoirs of fundamental rights. But if longevity is the defining test of a successful constitution, then Egypt’s new charter – ratified by popular referendum in December 2012 – is already in danger of failing. This essay, which draws on conversations with Egyptian judges and lawyers in 2013, will argue that the illegitimacy and ambiguity of Egypt’s constitution has undermined rule of law by insufficiently clarifying the balance of powers between rival institutions that are now engaged in fierce competition over the uncertain contours. The effect of the resulting power struggle has been a sharp deterioration of public confidence in judicial institutions which are increasingly perceived as partisan actors prioritizing their own interests over the public good.
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3)
Associated Press, “Egypt Constitution Passes With 63.8 Percent,” Yahoo! News, December 25, 2012, http://news.yahoo.com/egypt-constitution-passes-63-8-percent-181120349--finance.html. 63.8 percent of voters approved the constitution out of the 32.9 percent of total eligible voters who participated in the constitutional referendum.
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UN News Service, “UN Official Voices Alarm at Egypt Violence, Cites ‘Major’ Problems with Draft Constitution,” UN News Centre, December 7, 2012, http://www.un.org/apps/news/story.asp?NewsID=43706&Cr=egypt#.UTzIkNFVQ5g.
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Omar Halawa, “The Court’s Last Breath,” The Daily News Egypt, December 31, 2012, http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/court-s-last-breath.
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Chibli Mallat, “Reading the Draft Constitution of Egypt: Setbacks in Substance, Process, and Legitimacy,” Ahram Online, December 2, 2012, http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/4/59606/Opinion/Reading-the-Draft-Constitution-of-Egypt-Setbacks -i.aspx.
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See Oliver Hart and John Moore, “Incomplete Contracts and Renegotiation,” Econometrica 56, no. 4 (1988): 755-785.
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Alec Stone Sweet, “Constitutional Courts and Parliamentary Democracy (Special Issue on Delegation),” West European Politics 25 (2002): 77-100, 78.
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Aly el-Malky, “Shura Council Accuses SCC of Undermining Lawmakers,” Egypt Independent, February 19, 2013, http://www.egyptindependent.com/news/shura-council-accuses-scc-undermining-lawmakers.
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16)
Tamir Moustafa, “Law and Resistance in Authoritarian States: The Judicialization of Politics in Egypt” in Rule by Law: The Politics of Courts in Authoritarian Regimes, ed. Tom Ginsburg and Tamir Moustafa (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 139.
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20)
Patrick Kingsley, “Egyptian Police Go On Strike,” The Guardian, March 10, 2013, http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/10/egypt-police-strike.
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21)
Nicolas Pelham, “In Sinai: The Uprising of the Bedouin,” New York Review of Books, December 6, 2012, http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2012/dec/06/sinai-uprising-bedouin/?pagination=false.
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22)
Mara Revkin, “Islamic Justice in the Sinai,” Foreign Policy, January 11, 2013, http://mideast.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2013/01/11/islamic_justice_in_the_sinai.
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25)
Hans Kelsen, The Pure Theory of Law (California: University of California Press, 1967), 209.
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Egypt’s Constitution in Question
In: Middle East Law and GovernanceIn well-functioning democracies, constitutions are revered as the unwavering backbones of law and order and permanent reservoirs of fundamental rights. But if longevity is the defining test of a successful constitution, then Egypt’s new charter – ratified by popular referendum in December 2012 – is already in danger of failing. This essay, which draws on conversations with Egyptian judges and lawyers in 2013, will argue that the illegitimacy and ambiguity of Egypt’s constitution has undermined rule of law by insufficiently clarifying the balance of powers between rival institutions that are now engaged in fierce competition over the uncertain contours. The effect of the resulting power struggle has been a sharp deterioration of public confidence in judicial institutions which are increasingly perceived as partisan actors prioritizing their own interests over the public good.
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 426 | 33 | 5 |
| Full Text Views | 104 | 5 | 0 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 43 | 18 | 0 |