Dr. Shereen Hussein Al-Oseil
Assistant Professor of Private Law – Kuwait International Law School

Abstract:

A heated debate is always present in the legal literature regarding the issue of assuming judicial office by women. This controversy may be attributed to a greater issue, which is women labor. The real problem however, materializes in setting the priorities for working women. There is an apparent contradiction between a woman’s job duties and family responsibilities, especially with the belief that working women constitute half of the labor force responsible for community development in addition to her basic responsibilities related to raising future generations.
This issue should not be dealt with as a legal issue or as a religious issue, but rather as a sociopolitical issue in the first place. The correct solution for such an issue should not be based on legal principles or religious decisions, but on what sociopolitical circumstances and rules of justice dictates.
In the light of this framework, it is clear that the research objective is not to justify or to legitimatize women’s right to be judges. The paper sheds light on the problematic issue of assuming judicial office by women between social restrictions and modernity, taking into account the important principle of consistency and adaptation within social and environmental development, and the necessarily changing rules with the lapse of time.
To this end, it is important to analyze such developments that led women in Egypt, and recently in Kuwait, to hold judicial office. Yet, the issue in Kuwait remains controversial since the Ministery of Justice issued a decree limiting the appointments of judges to males. A lawsuit challenging the decision has been filed and is still pending before the court of cassation.

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