Copyright © 2006 -2020 Somalilandlaw.com. All rights reserved

SOMALILAND ORGANISATION OF THE JUDICIARY LAW

UPDATE: On 27 August 2020, the Somaliland Constitutional Court, for the first time, quashed a new law in toto. The 2020 new Law on the Organisation of Judiciary Law (see below) was considered by the Court as being inconsistent with the Constitution and ruled that the previous 2003/8 Law shall be resurrected until a new law compatible  with the Constitution is promulgated - see below the two versions of the 2003/8 Law which were formally signed in 2008.

• The Constitutional Court Decision (27 August 2020) on the Constitutionality of the 2020 Organisation of the Judiciary in Somali - Qaraar Laalis Wax ka Beddelka & Kaabista Xeerka Nidaamka Garsoorka (Xeer Lr. 24/2020)

The case was, unusually, brought to the attention of the Court by some judges of the regional Appeal Courts and no other parties were involved in the case. Our Comments on the decision to follow ...

• Both House of Parliament have, on 31 August 2020, issued jointly a Statement (sent to President) rebutting, unusually,  the decision of the Court - see a copy here in Somali. 

We shall be posting here further information and commentary....

The 2020 Law No. 24/2020

The new Somaliland Organisation of the Judiciary Law, Law No. 24/2020 has come into force on 24 March 2020. The Law consists of  97 Articles. THIS LAW HAS BEEN QUASHED BY THE CONSTITUTIONAL COURT WITH EFFECT FROM 27 AUGUST 2020. (see above).

- Copy of the Gazetted Law: Wax Ka Beddelka & Kaabista Xeerka Nidaamka Garsoorka Lr. 24/2020

- SLLaw copy of the Law including Arrangments of the law in Somali: WkB Xeerka Nidaamka Garsoorka Lr. 24/2020

- Arrangements (Tusmada) of the Law in Somali-English:  OJLaw 2020 Arrangements.

- Overall summary of the Law (To follow...)

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

The riddle of the two versions of the OLD same law (REPEALED as above by the new 2020 Law)

ONLY FOR BACKGROUND INFORMATION

This law was first passed by the House of Representatives in 2003, but  then spent  5 years being stuck between the two Houses and the President. In the meantime the Judiciary had no choice but to use the various versions of the old laws and, in particular, the 1962 Organisation of the Judiciary Law (English text) under Article 31(1)  of the 1993 National Charter which only allowed the use of pre 1969 laws. With the adoption of the Interim Constitution in 1997 and the final 2000/1 Constitution which allowed the use of any pre 1991 laws which are not inconsistent with Sharia and with fundamental rights and freedoms, the 1974 Organisation of the Judiciary Law (Somali text) which largely repealed the 1962 Law became also relevant.  

The 2003 Organisation of the Judiciary Law (Law No. 24/2003) was originally passed by the House of Representatives on 22 December 2003  and  consisted of only 49 articles. On 13 February 2004 the House of Elders approved the rest of the law but rejected Clause 21(1) relating to the minimum age of judges which they amended and voted for a minimum age of 35 years  (rather than 23).    My enquiries indicated that that there was no Presidential Decree which has  brought into force the  49 Articles law any time before (or even after) the new House of Representatives elected in September 2005 started reviewing the still draft Law.  In May 2005, the Justice Committee of the House reported to the House their proposed changes which included, among other things, new provisions relating to an annual conference of the judiciary (Article 56 to 59) and eventually a 60 Article version was considered and approved by the House.

The President’s main objection to the House approved law centred on Article 11 of the Law (corresponding to Article 10 of the 49 Articles version) and relating to the appointment and dismissal of Supreme Courts justices. Article 11(2) as previously drawn in the proposed bill  stated that “the (power of) appointment and dismissal of other judges (i.e excluding the Chairman) of the Supreme Court shall, after consultation with the Judicial Commission, be vested in the President of the Republic of Somaliland, and the House may approve the dismissal on a simple majority vote”.  I understand that the President’s view was that Article 105(1) of the Constitution obliged the President to consult the Judicial Commission only when  appointing the Supreme Court judges; that it is only the Court Chairman’s appointment (and, under Article 105(3),  dismissal) that required confirmation by both Houses of Parliament; and that Article 105 said nothing about approvals or confirmation of justices by  the House of Representatives, on its own. 

Indeed Article 105(3)  requires the confirmation of both Houses of the appointment of the Chairman of the Supreme Court, as well his dismissal.  The position of the House was that as this clause was silent about the procedure of dismissal of other Supreme Court justices, the independence of the judiciary would be advanced by the additional security of House confirmation of such dismissals. This, however, missed the point that Article 105(1) (unlike the its US Constitution counterpart)  did not make the appointment of Supreme Justices subject to parliamentary confirmation, and simply left both the appointment and dismissal of such justices as being within the powers of the President only.  There was in impasse on this point, but eventually the House agreed to the President’s proposal in relation to Article 11 and endorsed the change on 15 March 2008 on a vote of 23 for the change, 14 against and 8 abstaining.  As the House could not muster the two thirds majority needed under Article 78(4) of the Constitution to overrule the President’s amendment, any  rejection, at this stage,  would have led to the whole Bill lapsing completely. Therefore the  amended Article 11(3) [of the 60 Articles version of the Law] no longer includes the reference to the approval of the House for dismissals of Supreme Court justices, and also points out, as the Constitution mandates, consultation with the Judicial Commission on such appointments.  It seems to leave  though such consultation with the Commission in dismissals of the justices which is not in the constitution and may well have been a drafting error in reflecting the agreed Article change.   In contrast, the corresponding version of this clause in the 49 Articles version of the Law (Article 10(2)) simply states that the President shall consult the Commission in the appointing Supreme Court justices but this does not extend to their dismissals, a position which is more in line with the provisions of Article 105(1) of the Constitution. It is the case also  that the contested clause about the appointment and dismissal of Supreme Court justices is numbered differently as 11 in the 60 Articles versions and 10 in the 49 Articles version.

 The next action of the President in receiving the grudging approval of the House in respect of his objections to the Law was therefore important, as in my view, line item approval (i.e part of a bill approval) by the President is not permissible under the provisions of the Somaliland Constitution. In this case instead of decreeing that, once his objections have been acceded to by the House,  the whole law would  come into force, the President, in Decree No: 337/042008 of 8 April 2008,  stated ONLY that Article 10 of the Law has come into force, and did not mention the rest of the Law. There was also no mention in the Decree that the other articles of Law had already been approved by the President.   The House of Representatives then proceeded to  promulgate the  60 Articles version which they have already approved and then published it on its website together with  the Presidential Decree and the House Resolution agreeing to the President’s objection to the previous version of Article 10.  In contrast, the Office of the Presidency attached the same Decree and the same House Resolution to the 49 Articles version of the Law.

As the President’s Decree states that it was Article 10 (and not 11) that he has implemented and put in to force and as the House confirmation of their vote and endorsement of the President’s amendment (ref: GW/KF-6/419/2008 of 19 March 2008) also refers to their agreement to “the President’s proposal relating to Article 10”, the immediate questions that  arise are which text were the President and the two Houses referring to when discussing Article 10? If it was the  60 Article version which the House has passed and later agreed to the President’s objection, then despite the President’s decree referring to only one article and  in the face of no other stated presidential objections to the law within the set the time limit of 21 days (under Article 77(5)), the House could promulgate the Law itself under Article 77(6) of the Constitution. If, however,  it was the former President’s position that at all times he was only considering the 49 Articles version, then that does not square with the lengthy amendments  and additions made to the Law by both Houses and forwarded to the President. We can, so far, trace no other Presidential Decree issued before 8 April 2008 and relating relating to this Law.  Hence the riddle which should have by now being solved and set right.  Many of the the provisions of the two OJL versions are similar, which perhaps accounts for the lack of urgency, but the uncertainties should be brought to an end soon.  There has been an ongoing programme to do that and a  widely consulted new draft version  of the Law, which currently runs to 92 Articles, is being considered for finalisation and, in due course, submission to the cabinet and the House.

To improve further the work of the courts and the management of cases, it is also, in my view, time that:

• Separate Special Rules are drafted for a) the Supreme Court,  b) the Constitutional Court and c) the High Court of Justice (all variations of the supreme Court);
• The Italian Civil Law model of administrative law cases (including any relating to public finance and petitions under the Financial & Accounting Procedures of the State Law ) being dealt by the Supreme Court as a first instance court (under Article 10(2)(c)) should be changed and such cases should be dealt with by administrative law benches of some of the Regional Courts with appeals going to the Supreme Court (leapfrogging the Appeal Courts);
• the Civil Procedure Code should be substantially overhauled as even the Italian CPC that it was based on has been considerably changed since and we make recommendations in the page relating to the Code;
• the Criminal Procedure Code (which is based on the Somaliland Criminal Procedure Ordinance)  needs updating to bring it in line with the changes that have been made to the similar codes over the last 50 years; and
• a new  new Civil and Criminal Evidence Law is urgently needed which will an update  of the Evidence Law applied in Somaliland, in criminal matters,  until 1964 and, in civil matters, until 1974.

Here are copies of the two OJL versions (the 60 articles  version and the 49 articles version of the OJL2003): REPEALED

• The OJL 2003-  60 ARTICLES VERSION (AND THE PRESIDENTIAL DECREES) WHICH HAS ALSO BEEN CIRCULATED BY THE HOUSE AS THE OFFICIAL FINAL VERSION - It appears that this longer version of the Law is mostly used as indicated by the holding of annual judicial conferences which are mentioned in this version and not in the 49 Arts. version.  See below for a smaller file copy of this 60 Articles Law.
• The OJL - 49 ARTICLES VERSION (large scanned pdf file - smaller pdf  copy of the  law (49 Arts.).
• Both OJL versions   include the  identical House final Resolution and the President’s Decree.

To assist in the comparison of the two texts of the OJL, we have prepared a print which sets out the provisions of the two versions against each other in one document (OJL TWO VERSIONS Comparative Text). Until the new Law is passed, Somalilandlaw.com will be referring to the 60 Articles versions in its articles and  pages.  Here is a smaller pdf copy: Somaliland Organisation of the Judiciary Law - Law No. 24/2003 (60 Arts)

Under Art. 107 and 108 of the Constitution, the Judicial Commission is given the power to deal with of the appointments, promotion and transfer of judges in the courts other than the Supreme Courts and of Deputy (or assistants) of the Attorney General.  The composition of the Commission is set out in Art. 107(1) of the Constitution as follows:

• The Chairman of the Supreme Court                                              Chairman
• The two Supreme Court judges who rank highest in seniority    Member
• The Attorney General                                                                        Member
• The Director General of the Ministry of Justice                              Member
• The Chairman of the Civil Service Agency                                       Member
• Two members selected from the public once every two years by the House of Representatives, one of whom to be chosen from among the intellectuals and the other from the businessmen.
• Two members to be selected from the public once every two years by the House of Elders, one of whom to be chosen from among those who are well versed in the traditions and the other from the religious scholars.

The Commission is often incorrectly referred to as the ‘Higher Judicial Council’ which was a similar body set up under the 1962 Organisation of the Judiciary Law. The 1962 Law was largely repealed by the 1974 Organisation of the Judiciary Law. The Council was, however, revived after Somaliland’s  re-assertion of its independence and reversion to the 1962 Law with the composition of the then Somaliland Higher Judicial Council being set out in the 1996 Structure of the Judicial Council Law - Law No. 92/96 (Sharciga Dhismaha Gudiga Cadaalada- Lam. 92/96).

In 2012, the Commission issued a Code of Conduct for Judges and Prosecutors (Deputy/Assistants to the Attorney General). It is titled Somaliland Regulations for the Conduct and Discipline of  Judges and Prosecutors and was issued by the Judicial Commission on 5 August 2012. NOTE THIS CODE OF CONDUCT HAS BEEN REPLACED BY A NEW ONE DATED 15 OCTOBER 2018 - See below.

26/02/2019: A new Somaliland Code of Conduct for Judges and Prosecutors (in both Somali and English) has been approved by the Somaliland Judicial Commission (referred to, sometimes as the its old name prior to the Constitution, i.e the Higher Judicial Council). See: Xeer Nidaamiyaha Anshaxa & Anshax-Marinta  Garsoorayaasha & Ku-xigeenada XG 2018 - Somalilaland Code of Conduct & Discipline for Judges & Prosecutors 2018