Yesterday, the Cairo Administrative Court passed to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) lawsuits that questioned the legitimacy of the 100-member constituent assembly which is
Yesterday, the Cairo Administrative Court passed to the Supreme Constitutional Court (SCC) lawsuits that questioned the legitimacy of the 100-member constituent assembly which is currently drafting a new constitution for Egypt. The draft constitution should be finalised by next December, after which it should be put up to public referendum. If it is approved, legislative elections will be held two months later. If the court decides to dissolve the constituent assembly, the process would be delayed, and President Mursi would have the power to appoint a new one.
This is not the first time the assembly has been contested. A first one was ruled unconstitutional last April, and the current constituent assembly was formed in June. Both assembles were dominated by Islamists.
Watani sought the opinion of the constitutional scholar Nour Farahat on the recent ruling. Mr Farahat explained that the ruling was based on the court questioning the constitutionality of Article 1 of Law 79 of 2012 which immunises the constitutional assembly against being contested before the State Council, the highest administrative court in Egypt.
This law was rejected by the then ruling Military Council, but was passed by President Mursi last July. The law, Mr Farahat says, is unconstitutional, since the constitutional declaration which was issued in the wake of the 25 January Revolution after the 1971 was declared void, includes a text taken from the 1971 Constitution that warns against immunising administrative decisions against judicial appeals.
According to Mr Farahat, the Constitutional Court cannot rush into looking into the appeal, especially that Islamists doubt its impartiality, but will eventually rule that Article 1 of Law 79 is unconstitutional. It will then refer the case back to the State Council, by which time the Constituent Assembly would have wrapped up the constitution and threw it to public referendum. The people would have been asked for their say on a constitution that was drafted by an unconstitutional assembly.
While looking into the constitutionality of the Law 79, Farahat pointed out, the SCC might have to look into the constitutionality of other related legislative texts that were not referred to it in the first place. Such texts might include the administrative decision issued by President Mursi to amend the constitutional declaration. The SCC might rule the amendment unconstitutional, in which case Egypt will steadily head towards political and legal chaos, he said.
Watani International
24 October 2012