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Publications: Legislature
 Executive Summary Introduction The Egyptian Case
The Government’s and Parliament’s Role
in the Legislative Process
The Parliament’s Legislative Activity during the
Sixth Legislative Phase (1990-1995)
The Parliament’s Legislative Activity in the
Seventh Legislative Phase (1995-2000)
Evaluating the Parliament’s Legislative Performance during the Study’s Duration
The Lebanese Case
The Legislative Power’s Composition
Assessment of the Lebanese Parliament’s Legislative Performance
The Kuwaiti Case
An Overview of the Relationship between Powers in the Kuwaiti Constitution
The Parliament’s Situation in the Kuwaiti Political System
The Decree on Women’s Political Rights as Part of
The Political Struggle between the Parliament and the Government
The Moroccan Case
The First Parliamentary Experience (1963-1965)
The Legislative Yield of the Third and Fourth Parliamentary Sessions (1977-1984), (1984-1992)
The Field and Limits of the Moroccan Parliament’s Jurisdictions
The Yemeni Case
The Nature of the Regime or the Political System in the Yemeni Republic
The First Parliamentary Council after Unification
The Second Council (1993-1997)
The 1997 Parliament
Conclusion
Notes
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by Dr. Azza Wehbe The Yemeni Case: The First Parliamentary Council after Unification
In May 1990, the Yemeni republic was declared, and the draft constitution had included the foundations and principles related to the formation of the legislative power elected by citizens. Yet considering the circumstances that called for speed in declaring the Yemeni Republic’s founding at that date before the plebiscite on the draft constitution. Political leadership has focused on the necessity of the existence of a legislative power during the transitional period to avoid giving the legislative power’s full authorities to any executive power, as is adhered to usually in most countries undergoing a transitional period, and to avoid any constitutional gap that might occur as a result of the unavailability of a legislative power. The Declaration of the Yemeni Republic Agreement and regulating during the transitional period the procedures related to the parliament’s formation during the transitional period. Article 3 of the Agreement stipulated the following:
Based on that, and as the Agreement stipulates, a parliament for the transitional period was formed from the two previous parliaments of the two countries (159 members from the north are the advisory council members, and 111 members from the south are members of the Higher People’s Council. This is in addition to 31 members assigned by the Presidency Council. This council represented the first legislative power for unified Yemen (the Yemeni Republic). The council held its first meetings on 26/5/1990 in light of the Presidency Council’s decree No. 2 issued on 22/5/1990 at the invitation of the council to assemble on the morning of the first Saturday of year 1410 of the Islamic calendar (26/5/1990) .
Regarding the Parliament’s Jurisdictions and Functions
The Parliament’s Legislative Performance
Even though the parliament in actuality (consisting of two immediately merged councils following unification) was unable to achieve all that it was entrusted to perform in terms of functions in enacting regulatory laws for the unified government, and even the overwhelming majority of laws that were enacted and promulgated were minor. This can be attributed to many reasons that can be expressed in two main ones : The first reason: The two merged councils (and which formed one single council were not elected in a truly democratic way, though they were characterized by the appearance of democracy, which reflected negatively on most of the council’s activities and decisions . The second reason: That political conflicts and political competitiveness and difficulties that accompanied the councils’ merger or those difficulties that emerged at the time on more than one level detracted from the parliament’s effort much, if not all, its time. As such, it is possible to say that the distinctiveness of the conflict in making and regulating of many regulatory laws of the unified government between the coalition partners, the severity of the Reform Party in many cases regarding regulations and laws (the most prominent of which were merging and unifying educational curricula and merging armed forces on a national basis) made the parliament forfeit any effectiveness that could have anchored the primary and basic pillars for the regulations and laws of a unified country . In addition, the education law for example met with much opposition from the Yemeni Reform Group, one of the country’s main political forces, which viewed the law as conflicting with Islamic faith. The main issue of conflict among parliament members was Article 15 of the draft law on public education, which calls for merging all educational stages, unifying education in the entire republic, and eliminating the scientific institutes supervised by the Yemeni Reform Group . In general, on the level of the parliament’s legislative performance, the parliament discussed and approved a number of laws. Among these are the following:
The parliament approved two presidential decretal laws. One of them was the presidential decretal law no. 23 of 1991 regarding civil status and civil record .
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