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august 2011 july 2011 june 2011 may 2011 april 2011 march 2011 february 2011 january 2011 december 2010 november 2010 october 2010 september 2010 august 2010 july 2010 june 2010 may 2010 april 2010 march 2010 february 2010 january 2010 december 2009 november 2009 october 2009 september 2009 august 2009 july 2009 june 2009 may 2009 april 2009 march 2009 february 2009 january 2009 december 2008 november 2008 october 2008 september 2008 august 2008 july 2008 june 2008 may 2008 april 2008 march 2008 february 2008 january 2008 december 2007 november 2007 october 2007 september 2007 august 2007 july 2007 june 2007 may 2007 april 2007 march 2007 february 2007 january 2007 december 2006 november 2006 october 2006 september 2006 august 2006 july 2006 june 2006 may 2006 april 2006 march 2006 february 2006 january 2006 december 2005 november 2005 october 2005 august 2005 categories basra and southern regionalism 34 de baathification 11 federalism in sunni majority areas of iraq 14 federalism in the middle east 6 iranian influence in iraq 55 iraq regionalism general 27 iraq and soft partition 39 iraq international relations 5 iraq local elections 2013 21 iraq parliament membership 13 iraq parliamentary elections 2014 26 iraq s 2010 parliamentary election 175 iraqi constitutional issues 280 iraqi nationalism 95 kirkuk and disputed territories 47 oil in iraq 46 rule of law 2 sectarian master narrative 55 shiite sectarian federalism 16 uia dynamics 133 uncategorized 59 us policy in iraq leverage issues 67 meta create account log in entries feed comments feed wordpress com my latest book on amazon com from just world books available on amazon com twitter updates tweets by reidarvisser june 2026 m t w t f s s 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 aug subscribe entries rss comments rss recent posts legality and constitutionality questions in iraq s reform push the federalism dimension in yemen s draft constitution federalism and decentralization in libya s constitutional proposals groundbreaking iraq supreme court ruling on the law on mp replacement after the rise of isis will iraq s shiites secede additional ministers approved for the iraq cabinet the controversial kurdish ministers in the new iraqi cabinet the iraqi parliament fails to approve new security ministers the iraqi parliament approves the abbadi cabinet haydar al abbadi is the new iraq pm candidate maliki the presidency and parliament in the iraq pm nomination battle pm nomination trouble in iraq iraq elects fuad masum as new president for the first time in iraq a large field of presidential candidates the iraqi parliament elects its new speakership legality and constitutionality questions in iraq s reform push posted by reidar visser on tuesday 18 august 2015 21 50 a few quick points regarding the sudden reform push by iraq prime minister haydar al abadi representing the first significant constitutional developments during a term so far characterised above all by the war against isis proper legal procedure was not followed when the vice presidents were voted out of office by parliament on 11 august according to the law on presidential deputies the initiative for relieving them of duty should have gone through the president not the prime minister in accordance with the law on presidential deputies the iraqi parliament is in any case under a legal obligation to elect a new presidential deputy within 15 days from the post became vacant the iraqi vice presidential position is a position stipulated and hence protected by the constitution a cabinet that chooses to ignore this could in theory also send parliament on an indeterminate vacation whereas it was a good decision to get rid of two superfluous vp posts that were created only to care for the egos of certain bloc leaders to abolish the vp position altogether seems distinctly unconstitutional also exactly like in july 2011 no proper constitutional procedure was followed during the downsizing of the cabinet from 33 to 22 ministries as per the iraqi constitution each of the ministers relieved of duty should have been subjected to an individual vote and discussion in parliament again the decision in itself is laudable but the procedure that was followed is not an interesting aspect of the recent reform measures concern the attack on ethno sectarian and party quota sharing arrangements muhasasa such attacks have been part and parcel of political correct rhetoric in iraq ever since the emergence of new democratic institutions but only under abadi s recent reforms has it been taken seriously to the point where kurds in particular are worried that it will mean majoritarianism and informal shia dominance in practice it should be stressed that this aspect of the reform is constitutional ethno sectarian proportional representation is only an explicit constitutional requirement as far as the armed forces the parliament and a one off now defunct committee for reviewing the constitution are concerned it has nonetheless become a de facto organising principle at almost every level of iraqi government the iraqi government should be given credit for allowing public protest and persevering with reform even as it faces an existential external threat in the shape of isis the kurdish regional government could in this case learn something from baghdad external threats are in themselves not an argument for setting democracy to one side however if the iraqi government opts to cheat on legal procedure its reforms are likely to be stillborn not least with respect to the importance of getting the judiciary on board for reform it is in itself highly in need of an overhaul it would be wise to stick to instruments and arrangements that are clearly within the constitutional and legal limits posted in iraqi constitutional issues rule of law comments off on legality and constitutionality questions in iraq s reform push the federalism dimension in yemen s draft constitution posted by reidar visser on tuesday 20 january 2015 18 40 after having been leaked for several weeks a draft proposal for yemen s new constitution has finally been officially published online among other things it offers insights into the ongoing struggle about what state structure yemen should have in the future with important parallels to similar processes in iraq and libya the draft constitution defines yemen as a federal country with key questions relating to the demarcation of federal units as well as the division of power between the centre and the projected regions as far as administrative divisions are concerned the draft article 391 defines yemen as a country of six regions of which four will be in the north and two in the south aden and hadramawt subunits of the regions are listed meaning that boundary demarcation will be a relatively minor issue additionally the cities of sanaa capital and aden commercial special area will have separate statuses the partition of the north into four separate subunits is known to have prompted strong objections from the shiite leaning houthi movement which senses it will be left short changed in a way that is not commensurate with its recent military successes but is in line with previous un sponsored proposals in this way the yemeni draft goes further than the iraqi constitution in presenting a fully fledged federal map where the entire country is subdivided into federal regions from the outset there are also some checks and balances regarding territorial representation at the central government including provisions for 40 representation of the two southern regions in the first parliament article 139 and a requirement that senate decisions must enjoy support of at least a third of southern senators article 143 the president who unlike iraq will be the main executive and his deputy are to be elected on a single list representing more than one region article 180 though the powers of the deputy president are not defined beyond whatever the president decides see article 194 the most important issue concerns division of power between the different levels of government the yemeni draft is unsatisfactory in this respect exactly like the iraqi constitution that was adopted in 2005 and arguably a lot less clear than the recently published libyan draft constitution the problem is the way in which the concept of residualism is tackled in most federations division of power is defined by a list of powers that are reserved for either the centre or for the subunits exclusively with everything else the residual by implication being reserved for the other there may also be a specific list of shared powers however in the yemen draft constitution there are at least six points related to this firstly there is an enumeration of powers for the central government secondly there is an enumeration of powers for the regions thirdly there is a list of powers for subunits within the federal regions fourthly there is a list of shared areas of government between the centre and the federal regions fifthly there appears to be an attempt at establishing residualism in favour of the regions for anything not specifically mentioned at any level sixthly provision is clearly being made for special autonomies for the two cities with special administrative statuses sanaa and aden but there is no specification of their exact powers as for those powers that are mentioned as exclusive powers of the federal government beyond the rock bottom minimum of the likes of weight and measures and external defence there is national electricity provision as well as national education both are examples of things that are constitutionally not the exclusive powers of the central government in iraq but are nonetheless directed from baghdad in practice shared competencies between the federal government and the regions include policy areas that are less contested like youth women s affairs and sports on the other hand a noteworthy item among the powers reserved exclusively for the regions article 337 is the right to sign deals for trade and investment but other exclusive areas are less exclusive in reality for example confusingly for both education and environment a distinction is made between national and local policy meaning very critical demarcation issues are left for later beyond this article 338 outlines competencies of subunits in the federal regions wilayat s this is confusing especially because there is sometimes no clear specification of whether policy making or simply the provision of services is intended for example when public services including water gas and electricity are mentioned there is also a contradiction in the way in which powers of subunits of federal regions are already defined by the drafters of the constitution this leaves very little room for meaningful content in the stipulated new constitutions of the regions on top of this article 341 seems to establish the principle of residualism in favour of the regions for whatever competencies are not enumerated specifically for either the central government or the local subunits one might think that oil and gas could be one such residual area but that is not the case instead separate sections articles 357 and 387 90 address energy issues but only by way of generalities leaving the designation of revenue distribution and the management of the oil sector for future legislation with vague concepts like a just adila distribution the yemeni draft constitution offers even less in terms of guidelines than the hapless iraqi one from 2005 and much less than the relatively clear libyan constitutional draft that was released recently in sum the long winded yemeni draft constitution provides less clarity than the often contradictive iraqi constitution of 2005 and much less than the libyan constitutional draft with the military situation unfolding rapidly there is not much in this document that key players can look to in order to save the situation and bring it back to the political track quite the contrary it has been suggested that fury simply over the proposed administrative divisions and the six way federal scheme was a contributing factor behind the recent moves of the houthis against the yemeni president posted in federalism in the middle east comments off on the federalism dimension in yemen s draft constitution federalism and decentralization in libya s constitutional proposals posted by reidar visser on thursday 8 january 2015 14 48 followers of iraqi politics in the post 2003 period and the ongoing debate about federalism will likely see parallels to the way the concept of federalism has made its way into two other ongoing transitional processes in the middle eastern region those of yemen and libya whereas the political complexities of those transitions are too immense to be discussed by someone who does not specialize in the politics of those two countries constitutional drafts are emerging that make for some interesting surface comparison with the way federalism has been applied and continues to evolve in iraq as far as libya is concerned a patchwork draft constitution was made available in late december 2014 consisting of several sub documents on matters like administrative division organization of the judiciary transitional justice independent commissions finance and natural resources it can hardly be considered a complete constitutional draft also on some subjects there are two competing proposals again stressing the incomplete nature of the emerging charter but at least some hints about the prevailing trends inside the constitution writing committee are provided by the publication of these documents on administrative structure there are two papers reflecting the longstanding polarization in the arab world between competing visions for state structure there is one paper featuring decentralization and one paper using federalism as point of departure on closer inspection beyond terminological issues regions or aqalim versus governorates or muhafazat literally the same as in the iraqi constitution the differences between the two papers on state structure are less than one would think structurally there is of course some difference since the federalism position outlines a tripartite libya consisting of tripoli cyrenaica barqa in arabic and fezzan largely consisting of historical divisions that were also the chief organizing principle during libya s past existence as a federation in the 1950s and the 1960s conversely the paper advocating administrative decentralization within a unified state sets out a map of 32 governorates most of those units are corresponding to libya s administrative map of 2001 which had the same number of administrative units before some mergers ensued in subsequent years provision is made for a cabinet decision on exact administrative boundaries suggesting that at least some demarcation ambiguities remain but unlike the iraqi constitution a spanish inspired hybrid ...
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