Performing a comparison study about the Arab legislative systems faces two major difficulties. The first is the absence of a unified Arab legal terminology. The second is the lack of unified names for the parliamentary committees of the various Arab parliaments, which carry out almost identical functions & missions.

To overcome the first difficulty, we decided to adopt the most widely used term in the Arab states. This choice however has its shortcomings: some of the words we chose to use do not reflect the accurate meaning attached to similar words in some Arab constitutions. For instance, our choice of the term “head of state” isn’t necessarily synonymous with the term “head of country”, which appear in some Arab constitutions. Specially taking into consideration the often made distinction between “the state” as an institution on one hand, and the “society” on the other, and then between the “state” and the “country”.

To deal with the second above mentioned difficulty, a system of classification was adopted using functions and missions as the criteria for classification, according to which, parliamentary committees carrying out similar functions were listed under the same category regardless of the different names given to them in their own country.

Recognizing the necessity of using different levels for making accurate comparisons, we performed comparisons between Arab legislative systems in this study at different levels.

First, a comparison was done at the level of the members of parliaments and that’s by providing a chart comparing their rights and functions in different Arab countries.

Second, we compared at the level of speakers, by providing a chart compares their functions in the different Arab states.

A comparison was done at the level of the relations with other constitutional authorities: executive authority and judicial authority.

It’s been recognized that in all Arab states the three constitutional authorities exist: ? the executive authority ? the legislative authority ? the judicial authority (see figure T1). The separation of powers between these three authorities is evident in most Arab states. But, this separation is not fully respected in some Arab states, the head of the state in these countries is authorized to rectify laws either alone, or with the association of the parliament.

In Saudi-Arabia, Oman and Qatar, the head of the state alone is the legislative authority and the role of the parliaments in these states is confined to a constancy role.

Whereas we that in the United Arab Emirates, Kuwait and Bahrain the legislative authority is shared between the head of the state and the parliament, the verification of the first on any related law being required.

We should mention here the special case of the United Arab Emirates where the verification of laws is shared between the supreme council of the union and the head of the state. This is shown through the constitution text, where the higher executive authorities have the role of a collective authority. That’s because the supreme council shares the head of the state in some of his functions, either in legislating or in appointing the members of the cabinet.

In Iraq, the situation is somehow similar, for the revolutionary command council, enjoys some constitutional authorities in dissolving the parliament and participating in the legislation of laws.

We notice that the constitution of Saudi-Arabia has charged the high scientists body, and the scientific research administrative and ‘Al Ifta” to formulate the rules of the “Sharia” (Islamic law), giving them by this way a consultancy role in legislation, while keeping the legislative authority in the hands of the head of the state.

The constitutions of both Morocco and Tunisia have noticed the possibility of performing a referendum concerning legislation, allowing the people, to play a role in legislating.

It’s also noticeable that both Egypt & Syria realized the possibility of performing a referendum but only on political and economical issues.

Here we can add that most of the Arab countries authorized the executive authority to release and publish laws (in most states the term “releasing” means publishing, except in Saudi-Arabia and Qatar where it means verifying or confirming.

We also notify that all Arab states authorized the executive authority to release laws by decrees (in Lebanon they are called a legislative decrees), providing it, by this way, the chance to participate in the legislation, within certain boundaries.

In Morocco, this mission is given to the government (this will be discussed later through its comparison table).

The executive authority in all the Arab countries, consists of the head of the state and the cabinet.

In some Arab states the cabinet is formed without any interference from the legislative authority, while in others, it’s formed with the cooperation of the legislative authority (election, or assignment, or by consultancy) (this will be discussed later on).

The Arab constitutions, unanimously recognize an independent judicial authority, that consists in general from “judicial systems” and “judicial constitutional organizations”. Some Arab countries recognized a “constitutional council” and “a supreme council for prosecuting presidents and ministers” (Lebanon, Morocco, Tunisia), others recognized only a “constitutional council” (Bahrain, Kuwait, Egypt, Sudan), while a last group recognized merely a “supreme council for prosecuting presidents and ministers” (Yemen, Emirates, Syria, Algiers).

Moreover, some Arab states recognized neither a “constitutional council” nor a “supreme council for prosecuting presidents and ministers”.

In Emirates the “Supreme Court of the Union” has both the authority to examine the constitutionality of the laws and prosecute ministers.

Some countries authorize exclusively the parliament to examine the membership validity (Yemen, Emirates, Kuwait, Iraq, Jordan, and Egypt) (this will be discussed later).

Moreover all Arab states recognize independent legislative organizations, clearly mentioning their missions and formation.

A consulting council exists in Saudi-Arabia that has the appearance of a parliament. But its function is to propose laws, without being able to confirm them. In some Arab states (the gulf countries), the authority of proposing laws, is shared between the parliament and the head of the state.

In most Arab states, the legislative authority consists of one council, to which we assigned the term “parliament” (others gave it different names – see index). While in other Arab states (Oman, Jordan, Lebanon, Egypt, Algiers, Morocco), it consists of two councils: a “parliament” and a “senate” (other states gave it different names-see index ….).

The constitution of Lebanon recognize a house of senate, but it hasn’t been formed till now.

We should note, that some Arab states use the term parliament to describe the legislative council, whereas others states use this term to indicate both legislative council and senate.

To make this easier, we noticed separate comparison tables, for each council, but we haven’t noticed comparisons regarding their constitution and job description.