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An-Najah University Journal for Research - B (Humanities)

Abstract

This study departs from the assumption that the Arab judicial systems in general are infused by the Egyptian judicial system, as it is one of the most ancient and deep-rooted systems in the Arab World. Not surprisingly, the Egyptian courts had been one of the first in the Arab region to review the legitimacy of the Arab parliaments after the "Arab Spring" as it is known in the Arab media. Arguing this, the most apparent example on this assumption is the decision of the Supreme Constitutional Court to dissolve the Egyptian Parliament in post-January 2011 Revolution. Arguably, the dissolution of the Egyptian parliament represents a judicial precedent for several other Arab jurisdictions including the Palestinian one, to follow the Egyptian courts. This claim is derived from the fact that the Palestinian judicial system has borrowed many judicial precedents from the Egyptian courts. Furthermore, the Egyptian law-men had played a significant role in designing the legal and judicial systems, starting with drafting the Palestinian Basic Law, and not finishing by drafting the Law No. (3) of 2006 of the Supreme Constitutional Court. This implies that the Egyptian legal and judicial jurisdictions have impacted on the outcomes of Palestinian judicial system in general, and the constitutional review in particular. Potentially, the similarities between the dissolution of the Egyptian and the Palestinian parliaments – despite different reasons – supports this argument. In fact, the dissolvement of the parliamentary institutions represented a new phenomenon in the Arab politics, especially because there are several Arab constitutional courts overruled the elected parliaments in the aftermath of Bo'zizi's Tunisian revolution. The dissolvement decisions had been deemed by many observers a counter revolution against the change movement that dominated the Arab nations. Hence, it has been demanding for many law scholars to examine this phenomenon, and find out the reasons and justifications that motivated the Arab judges to take such decisions.

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