Commentary on Law No. 78 of 2019 related to banning the use of non- equated Academic Certificates
Dr. Musaed Saleh Alenizi
Assist. Prof. of Private Law – College of Law – University of Kuwait
Dr. Jamal Mouhareb Alfadli
The lawyer before the Kuwaiti Constitutional – Court and the Court of Cassation
Abstract:
The research deals with Law No. 78 of 2019 regarding the prohibition of the use of unquoted academic certificates, which aims to combat forged academic certificates. However, the wording of its texts was not at the level required to achieve its goal and raises many problems. The most important problem is the improper use of some terms in the texts of the law, and the confusion between them, which led to the lack of specifying the scope of its application and its approach. This necessitates the reformulation of some articles and the addition of others to organize the legal centers that were established before the law came into force.
The issue of the date of enforcement of the law and the scope of its application also raises a problem that must be taken into consideration when amending the law, since the lack of clarity on the date of enforcement of the law raises ambiguity to determine the facts and the individuals who are subject to its authority. Are the facts that are subject to its provisions, namely the use of an academic certificate or the announcement of a degree or an academic title without equating it or obtaining the certificate without its equivalence considered criminal in itself? This may raise the criminal responsibility of individuals, which may lead to suspicions of the unconstitutionality of the texts that establish this criminalization.
One of the faults of the law is the non-allocation of a text that limits the equivalence of academic certificates to academic certificates issued outside the State of Kuwait, as the absence of such text requires the equivalence of all certificates issued after high school, whether issued inside or outside Kuwait, which is not something that the legislator wanted. Therefore, this comparative, thorough study became necessary.
Keywords: enforcement, equation, forgery, suspicions of unconstitutionality, academic certificates.