The Judiciary in Iraq
The Path to an Independent Judiciary and Modern Court System
by
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Part Two: The Judiciary in Iraq During the British Occupation Britain captured Basrah in 1914 as part of its campaign against the Ottoman Empire in WWI. Instead of keeping the laws and judicial institutions of the Ottoman era intact, as required by international norms at that time, the British military administration allowed the existing court structure to collapse when the Turkish administrators fled. Ad hoc military and civilian orders were used until the British issued a more substantial body of law called the Iraqi Occupied Territories Code (Iraqi Code), derived from the laws Britain established previously in India and some Turkish law. The Iraqi Code was eventually applied throughout the areas of Iraq controlled by Britain, starting with Basrah, Al-Emaraa and Nassiriya. These laws were only applied in larger towns. In villages, the British military administration applied Tribal Criminal and Civil Disputes Regulations drawn up by the British Governor Henry Dewes based in large part on Indian Border Crimes Regulation. As most of the trained judges left with the Turks and remaining court staff had been trained on laws and systems in Turkish, the new British efforts in Arabic and English were primarily administered by British military and, eventually, civilian political officers.
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About the Book
After simmering in the background through the nineties, Iraq burst into the awareness of many when it became a battleground against the war on terror under the Bush administration. Few realize that in the midst of the fierce policy battles, one partially implemented state-building exercise took root, and Iraq became the first country in the Middle East, democracy or otherwise, to have a constitutionally mandated independent judicial branch.
In The Judiciary in Iraq, Madhatal-Mahmood, chief justice of Iraq, examines the many elements contributing to the creation of the first independent judicial branch in the Middle East in 2003, tracing the roots of the Iraqi judicial system from Islamic and Ottoman origins through to the fortuitous opportunity created by the US state-building machinery that so often misfired. Providing guidance for support to the justice sector in Iraq and to new democracies in the region, Chief Justice al-Mahmood draws on his decades of work in both academic and government sector positions to discuss why Iraqi courts were positioned for independence in 2003 and on how the new branch has expanded access to services in spite of challenges.
This study examines the evolution of the judiciary and courts in Iraq, starting from pre-Islamic developments, and then moving through the impact of Ottoman and British rule before considering the role of the judiciary and courts in a modern, stable, and democratic state in the Middle East following US interventions.
About the Author
Chief Justice Madhat al-Mahmood is chief justice of the Federal Supreme Court of Iraq and president of the Higher Judicial Council of Iraq. In more than fifty years of service to the Iraqi justice sector, he has served in both executive positions and judicial roles in the Iraq’s complex justice system.