The Law of Bahrain is set out in its

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 entity and commonly determine how that entity is to be governed. When these princ ...

. Several controversial laws have been passed in the history of the country. The

State Security Law of 1974 Following Bahrain's independence from the British in 1971, the government of Bahrain embarked on an extended period of political suppression under a 1974 State Security Law shortly after the adoption of the country's first formal Constitution i ...

, for example, was used by the government to crush political unrest from 1974 until 2001. Also, the

Royal Decree 56 of 2002 Royal Decree 56 of 2002 is a law issued in Bahrain by King Hamad ibn Isa al-Khalifah that grants impunity to security officers and state officials from being prosecuted for human rights abuses prior to 2001. See also * Torture in Bahrain * State Se ...

issued by King Hamad ibn Isa Al Khalifah grants

impunity Impunity is avoidance of punishment, loss, or other negative consequences for an action. In the international law of human rights, impunity is failure to bring perpetrators of human rights violations to justice and, as such, itself constitutes a d ...

to security officers and state officials from being prosecuted for

human rights Human rights are moral principles or normsJames Nickel, with assistance from Thomas Pogge, M.B.E. Smith, and Leif Wenar, 13 December 2013, Stanford Encyclopedia of PhilosophyHuman Rights Retrieved 14 August 2014 for certain standards of hu ...

abuses prior to 2001. Amiri decrees are also put into effect in the Law of Bahrain.