The celebration of the centenary of the
Great Arab Revolt is
a celebration of the Hashemite leadership’s achievements.
اضافة اعلان
Constitutional achievements crowned by the establishment of
the Constitutional Court speak volumes for how far this country has gone to
stand out as a story of success in the eyes of the world.
The revival of this national occasion is a historic
opportunity to continue working for the future, to reinforce the will to
achieve more, to uphold the values of leadership, to evoke the achievements of
ancestors, to be proud of what has been achieved, and to celebrate the
centenary for what it stands for in terms of a unique national brand and
guiding values.
We recall the most important historical national milestones,
foremost of which is the achievement of the Kingdom’s independence declared by
the founder of the Jordanian state, the late King Abdullah I, who was martyred
at the threshold of
Al-Aqsa.
The key developments in the constitutional life in Jordan
are also signature achievements, starting in the early formative years of the
Jordanian state, particularly in 1924, when the then Emir, and later King Abdullah I, ordered the establishment of a committee to draft a basic law as a
constitution for the state.
The committee completed its work in the same year 1924, and
made its recommendations.
However, due to the difficulty of the situation at that
time, stemming from the conditions of the region and the British mandate, its
recommendations were not implemented until 1928.
However, it turned out that such an outcome was not
satisfactory, failing to accommodate the aspirations for a democratic state,
due to a set of regional and international circumstances and conditions that
prevailed in the Arab region, including the French-British dispute as two
powers mandated to administer the region. These circumstances persisted for
about 20 years until 1946.
Despite the declaration of the independence of the Hashemite
Kingdom of Jordan, this law did not come into existence until 1947.
Although that Basic Law (the Constitution) helped the
country take advanced and sophisticated steps, it did not contain all the
ingredients for the envisioned democratic state and failed to meet the demands
and needs of citizens to establish a fully-fledged democratic structure.
The Israeli occupation of Palestine in 1948 led to the
declaration of the unity of the two banks on April 24, 1950, following the
Jericho conference, which resulted in the formation of the first parliamentary
council to annex the two banks.
The aforementioned council represented the unity of the two
banks equally on condition of preserving the Palestinian identity.
At that time, the Jordanian government formed a new committee
to draft a constitution that was presented to Parliament, and this law had a
contractual nature with the approval of figures representing the people in the
two banks.
The 1952 constitution was promulgated during the reign of
King Talal after the assassination of the founding king.
With this accomplishment, the Kingdom entered a new stage of
political development and had one of the best Arab constitutions in the modern
era.
It was a groundbreaking step in the development of political
action, and it was published in the Official Gazette on January 1, 1952,
containing very clear ground rules on governance and orientation towards
democracy.
Another milestone was the National Charter, drafted in 1989
in line with the principle of the rule of law and the independence of the
judicial power.
The charter included a historical introduction and eight
chapters. The second addressed the need to establish a constitutional court,
and identified the terms of reference towards that end.
But the court did not come into existence until after the
Constitution was amended in 2011 and a law was enacted the following year.
According to the constitutional amendments, the Constitutional Court became the
only judicial authority competent to review the constitutionality of laws in
Jordan, and, subsequently, constitutional oversight in Jordan shifted from a
decentralized to a centralized mode.
A Royal Decree was issued on October 6, 2012 appointing the
president and nine members of the Constitutional Court.
The two constitutional provisions and the law affirm that
the court is a judicial body, and the rules pertaining to judges are applied to
the members of this court, such as non-dismissal, disciplinary guarantees, and
others. In the outcome, Jordanians saw the creation of a court that is
independent and self-standing, meaning that it is not considered part of the
judicial authority.
The establishment of the Constitutional Court came in light
of the comprehensive reform that His Majesty King Abdullah II adopted since his
accession to the Throne, and it was part of the comprehensive system that His
Majesty had envisioned, guaranteeing the rights and freedoms of the citizen on
the one hand, and the consolidation of the principle of separation of powers
and their distribution on the other.
Control over the constitutionality of laws and regulations
in force is achieved through direct appeals granted to each of the Council of
Ministers, the Lower House, and the Senate, and indirect appeals through the
right to plead unconstitutionality granted to any of the parties to a case
pending before any court. If this court finds that the case is solid, it must
refer it to the Court of Cassation for the purposes of deciding on the matter
of referring it to the Constitutional Court.
As for the interpretation of the text of the Constitution,
it was entrusted for the first time in the history of the Jordanian state to an
independent judicial body, which is the Constitutional Court, after it was
assumed by the Special Bureau in the early years of the Jordanian state (the
emirate) and the Kingdom under the Basic Law of Transjordan in 1928.
The court’s general framework is the provisions of the
Constitution and its special reason to declare the laws in question
unconstitutional was their infringement on the rights and freedoms of
Jordanians stipulated in Chapter Two of the Constitution under the heading “The
rights and duties of Jordanians.”
Since its inception on October 6, 2012, the court has issued
34 rulings and 17 interpretative decisions that championed the Constitution. In
its provisions, it affirmed its protection of the rights to equality, personal
freedoms, litigation, private property, and the inviolability of public money.
In my opinion, hearing the unconstitutionality appeal or the
request to interpret the Constitution’s texts is a very accurate process, where
a deep research and comparison character is inherent, requiring multiple
sessions, listening to the members of the entire court’s general body, and
analyzing and interpreting their contributions.
The incumbent President of the Constitutional Court Hisham
Al-Tal is also the current president of the Union of Arab Constitutional Courts
and Councils. He called for a meeting of the Federation’s Executive Office last
April in the Dead Sea to develop a comprehensive plan for the union’s work and
activate its role in serving the constitutional judiciary in Arab countries
through stepping up cooperation among its members, exchanging rulings and
information, and supporting the federation’s electronic library at the
permanent headquarters of the
Supreme Constitutional Court in Cairo.
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