Chief-in-Editor Prof. Badria A. Al-Awadi
Remarkably, Kuwaiti legislative and parliamentary arena, witnessed during the past three years an influx and the abundance of legislation and laws that have been adopted and approved, with a clear preponderance of the balance of government projects at the base of the parliamentary proposals, which is normal because the government has a wide legal and administrative systems can prepare laws drafts, according to Studies and needs, which must be from legislative initiative in the absence of parliamentary work joint system.
It is certain that a fraction of that legislation, which was approved and issued as a supplement quality and response to legal and legislative requirements and needs, the country needed them, as in the case of municipal law ,law of tenders , copyright law , law of commercial agencies , law of caring for the elderly and the law of the Juvenile Welfare and others, however, others of which it includes big disadvantages, some constitutional, as in the case of Law of the electronic media , law prevent the abuser, and the law of cyber security and the DNA Law.
As part of this government legislative initiative movement, the government took over last May to refer the establishment of the State Council law draft to the National Assembly for discussion and approval in the ongoing session (before the summer holidays and before the issuance of the Emiri decree to dissolve the National Assembly), a project that came in eighty four (84) articles, and includes substantial changes regarding the organization , the structure , terms of reference, not only the administrative court work in the country not even the structure, but the organization and jurisdiction in general, also includes effects especially on administrative cases litigants, including those related to political rights and fundamental freedoms issues. the text of the draft law on the establishment of a Council of State as a judicial authority specialized in the administrative and Ifta judiciary and drafting of laws and regulations, projects. It explained that the Council is composed of two parts, one judicial and consists of the Supreme Administrative Court, thejudical Administrative Court, and administrative courts, and the second is consultant, in addition to President and Vice agents and a general secretariat. The project has identified in its Article XV, which includes ten paragraphs, the terms of reference of administrative courts to include all administrative disputes, whether due to decisions or administrative contracts, then reported in the article that followed (16) What it did not concern , which are (requests regarding sovereignty and issued decisions in all nationality matters, residence and banishment non-Kuwaitis and the establishment of houses of worship), which is a clear criticism of this project.
A question of establishing a Council of State of Kuwait on the table for several decades, and the constitution stipulates the possibility of its inception in Article 171, in which it: (permissible by law the establishment of a Council of State to handle the tasks of administrative and Ifta judiciary and the drafting set forth in the previous two articles). Interest in them has increased in light of the significant rise in the number of cases of administrative disputes and the slow adjudicated and disrupt the interests of citizens and stumble of relevant administrative bodies work, in addition there is a consensus among the constitutional and administrative jurisprudence in Kuwait on the need and importance of this Council, in this context Dr. Othman Abdul Malik Saleh, God’s mercy, asked (Kuwaiti legislature to get out of long-blasted and establish the administrative judicial in Kuwait by establish the proposed Council of State which proposed in Constitution, which we hope to achieve big hopes that everyone look for it and have for being rebound in the quality of legislation and the progression of the whole sentence), and stressed the importance of it saying (The creation of the State Council, which proposed by the constitution to create, it has become an urgent need to consolidate the principle of legality, anti-clutter, publisher of justice, peace server and installer for any system).
Generations of scholars, researchers and legal experts have been shared the late Dr. Othman Abdul Malik in his request and carried the banner of urgency on the need to be adopted in the framework of the project for the development of Kuwaiti judiciary as a whole, making it a great deal of importance. For this purpose, the government has attract the attention of Council of State and the attention of many private entities that are directly related, as is the case with the Supreme Judicial Council and the Association of Lawyers and others in addition to lawyers and activists in the field of public rights and freedoms. Since the cabinet announced the approval for the draft and forwarded to the national assembly as a government project published texts in the media, remarks rolled welcoming and criticize the project, which confirm the importance of this Council and the need for it, but this debate and deliberation quickly not concerned any more after the issuance of a decree to dissolve the national assembly, which means that the entire project may be postponed to an unspecified time, which means of waste a real chance in reforming the judicial system in Kuwait.
Definitely the project preparation was stained by a lot of mistakes, including not put to debate in front to public opinion and the involvement of the relevant authorities, as well as to restrict the jurisdiction of the administrative court and prevented it to extend its supervision on government decisions regarding the of withdrawal citizenship and the expansion of the resolutions of sovereignty, but it is also certain to create State Council in Kuwait is no longer just a government project, but it is a necessity required for the development of the legal and judicial system’s plans, in order to ensure their effectiveness and ensure the rights and freedoms, and must be concerted efforts among the various parties for approval and adoption as soon as possible, on basis and principles of justice, equality and the rule of law. KILAW contributed by offering observations on this project which will be published at a forthcoming issue.