The 2017 draft Libyan constitution is a draft of a

constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organisation or other type of Legal entity, entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When ...

for

Libya Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...

prepared by the Constitution Drafting Assembly of 60 people elected from around Libya in the 2014 Libyan Constitutional Assembly election. Status: The new draft constitution was not adopted.

Background

Following the overthrow of the

Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...

government in the

Libyan Civil War Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...

, the

Libyan interim Constitutional Declaration The Constitutional Declaration is the current supreme law of Libya, introduced due to the overthrow of the Gaddafi government in the Libyan Civil War. It was finalised on 3 August 2011 by the National Transitional Council, and is intended to rem ...

was published by the Libyan

National Transitional Council The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...

in August 2011, intended as a temporary constitution until a permanent one could be agreed upon.

Constitution Drafting Assembly

The

High National Election Commission The High National Election Commission is a body created in Libya for organising elections following the 2011 Libyan Civil War, starting in 2012. Creation The High National Election Commission (HNEC) was involved in organising the 2012 Libyan pa ...

(HNEC) organised the 2014 Libyan Constitutional Assembly election of 60 representatives in February 2014, 20 from each of the

Tripolitania Tripolitania ( ar, طرابلس '; ber, Ṭrables, script=Latn; from Vulgar Latin: , from la, Regio Tripolitana, from grc-gre, Τριπολιτάνια), historically known as the Tripoli region, is a historic region and former province o ...

Cyrenaica Cyrenaica ( ) or Kyrenaika ( ar, برقة, Barqah, grc-koi, Κυρηναϊκή ��παρχίαKurēnaïkḗ parkhíā}, after the city of Cyrene), is the eastern region of Libya. Cyrenaica includes all of the eastern part of Libya between ...

and

Fezzan Fezzan ( , ; ber, ⴼⵣⵣⴰⵏ, Fezzan; ar, فزان, Fizzān; la, Phazania) is the southwestern region of modern Libya. It is largely desert, but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys (wadis) in the north, where oases enable ...

regions of Libya. The group of 60 people became known as the

Constituent Assembly of Libya The Constituent Assembly of Libya or Constitution Drafting Assembly is the chamber responsible for writing a new constitution for Libya in the post-Gaddafi era. It was elected on 20 February 2014 and began work on 22 April with Ali Tarhouni as its ...

or ''Constitution Drafting Assembly''.

Draft Constitution

In July 2017, the Constitution Drafting Assembly voted by a two-thirds majority in favour of a final draft constitution. The draft constitution defines a presidential system of government, with strong powers given to the president.

Presidential dominance

Article 100 provides for direct popular election of the president. Article 104(1) gives the president full power to choose a government. Article 113 gives the president to choose the prime minister arbitrarily without being constrained to members of parliament or to the political party with a parliamentary majority. Under Article 115, parliament requires a two-thirds majority to withdraw confidence from the government. Under Article 104(2), government policy is decided by the president, and implemented by the government. Zaid al-Ali interpreted Articles 67 and 109 to together "assume that it is parliament's responsibility to fall into line with the president".

Wealth redistribution

Zaid al-Ali interpreted Chapters 8 and 9 of the draft constitution to lead to concentration of wealth in the hands of the president, including the control of natural resources.

Security services

Zaid al-Ali judged the lack of definition of intelligence services or constraints on their activities in the draft constitution risked the creation of multiple intelligence agencies with no civilian oversight. He judged the definitions of military and police hierarchies to have "serious problems with the chain of command".

States of emergency

Al-Ali viewed the 120-day limit on a state of emergency defined in the draft constitution as positive, "in keeping with hetrend" of other post-2011 Arab constitutions. He expressed concern that parliament's approval is not required before a presidential declaration of a state of emergency comes into effect (as in the Iraqi constitution, ).

Judiciary

Al-Ali judged the judiciary (in Articles including 118, 120, 125, 135 and 136) to be defined with a fair degree of independence from the president, but with a flaw in ambiguity regarding the membership and decision-making methods of the high judicial council.

Human rights

Al-Ali viewed the human rights elements of the draft constitution to lack details of how they would be enforced in courts in practice. He commended the "limitations clause" in Article 65, which limits state authorities from restricting any of the human rights declared in the constitution unless the restriction is "necessary, clear, limited, and proportional with the restrictions' objectives". According to al-Ali, only two other Arab countries at the time had this limitation (Tunisia, Article 49, and Yemen's draft constitution).

Elections

Article 157 of the draft constitution states that the HNEC is responsible for organising elections.

Support and opposition

The Constitution Drafting Assembly (CDA) presented the draft to the

House of Representatives House of Representatives is the name of legislative bodies in many countries and sub-national entitles. In many countries, the House of Representatives is the lower house of a bicameral legislature, with the corresponding upper house often c ...

(HoR) for endorsement. In February 2018, the HoR rejected the CDA's draft constitution and called instead to develop an amendment of the 1951 Constitution of the Kingdom of Libya. Earlier in February 2018, a legal case against the validity of the draft constitution proceeded to a hearing by the Supreme Court, which dismissed lower courts' decisions against the draft.

References

{{Libya-stub Constitutions of Libya