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The law of Libya has historically been influenced by Ottoman, French, Italian, and Egyptian sources. Under the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Libya has moved towards a legal system based on sharia, but with various deviations from it.
When Libya was ruled by the Ottoman Empire, the civil law was the Majallat al-ah Kam al-ad Liyat. In 1830, the Ottoman Empire adopted the Napoleonic Code as its commercial code. [1] However, Islamic law continued to influence other areas, for example, the 1858 Ottoman Land Code, which comprised a mix of Turkish traditional practises and Islamic law. [2] By 1870, the Senussi movement of Sufi- and Salafi-influenced jurist Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi had also effectively established an alternative legal system, more purely based on Islamic law, for the tribes of inland Libya. [3] The coastal portion of Libya was also administered as an Italian colony from 1911 to 1943, bringing Italian law into Libya as well. [1]
In the 1950s under King Idris, completely new codes based on French and Italian civil law were drafted, including the Commercial Code of 1953 and the Civil Code of 1954. [1] The latter was written by Abd El-Razzak El-Sanhuri, the author of the 1948 Egyptian Civil Code, which itself was based on the French civil law, but also recognised sharia and Arab customs as a source of law. [4] [5] Arab customs were ranked by Article I of the Libyan code as third as a source of law in Libya, behind sharia; this compares to its ranking of second, ahead of sharia, in other countries adopting Sanhuri codes such as Egypt and Iraq. [6] European laws were imported and applied in fields where sharia law was less developed, namely commercial law, procedural law, and penal law. [7] Islamic influence remained in some areas of commercial law too, however; Libya was the first country adopting the Sanhuri code to prohibit riba (usury). [8]
Libya maintained a dual system of courts during this period: sharia law, of the Maliki school, was applied by sharia courts in matters of personal status. However, the establishment of this system of dual courts in practice meant power was taken away from the traditional sharia courts, leading to a backlash and the growth of Islamic opposition movements. [7]
When Muammar Gaddafi came to power in the Libyan Revolution, he promised to reinstate sharia law and abrogate imported laws which contradicted Islamic values. [9] Initially, however, Article 34 of the 1969 constitution stated that all old laws remained in effect, except for those which contravened the new constitution. [10] In 1973, Gaddafi suspended all legislation, and stated that sharia would be the law of the land, however Gaddafis sharia was based only in the quran and not in a classical Muslim legalistic source of fiqh. It could hence be considered a new form fiqh. [11] The dual-court system was also abolished that year, replaced by a single court system which aimed to bring together Islamic and secular principles. [12] However, by 1974, progress in the Islamicisation of the law had come to a halt. [13]
The Green Book , Gaddafi's outline of his political and economic philosophy for Libya, officially accepts religion and customary law as sources of law for society. [14] In 1977, the Libyan government promulgated the Declaration of People's Power, which superseded the constitution; this also stated that the Qur'an was the source of legislation for Libya. [15] However, throughout the late 1970s and 1980s, Gaddafi repeatedly emphasised in speeches that Islamic law was an insufficient basis for modern economic and social relations, and that the traditional Islamic guidelines for property and commerce had no legal standing. [16] In practise, secular policies overrode religion as a source of law. [14] Thus, by 1990, Ann Elizabeth Mayer of the University of Pennsylvania described Gaddafi's actual progress towards the Islamisation of Libyan law as "very modest", and largely aimed not at reviving specific sharia rules, but enforcing public morality consistent with Libyan values. [11]
One area in particular in which Libyan laws are inconsistent with sharia is in the penal law, where the punishments are lighter than those mandated by traditional hudud, especially in the case of needy offenders. Mayer analyses this as leniency inspired by the Libyan government's socialist principles. [17] The Libyan government also viewed sharia's protection of private property, along with principles of Islamic law regarding contracts and commerce, as incompatible with a socialist economic programme. [18] However, Libyan law follows the sharia rules of evidence; the testimony of women and non-Muslims is not accepted in criminal matters. [19] The Maliki school continued to be used as the source of Islamic law; however, if Maliki sources do not cover a certain question, reference is made to the Libyan Penal Code and the Libyan Code of Penal Procedure, rather than other schools of sharia law. The practical aim of this procedure seems to have been to limit the number and scope of sharia laws applied. [19]
The politics of Libya has been in an uncertain state since the collapse of the Libyan Arab Jamahiriya in 2011 and a recent civil war and various jihadists and tribal elements controlling parts of the country. On 10 March 2021, a national unity government, unifying the Second Al-Thani Cabinet and the Government of National Accord was formed, only to face new opposition in Government of National Stability, until Libyan Political Dialogue Forum assured the ongoing ceasefire.
Sharia is a body of religious law that forms a part of the Islamic tradition. It is derived from the religious precepts of Islam and is based on the sacred scriptures of Islam, particularly the Quran and the Hadith. In Arabic, the term sharīʿah refers to God's immutable divine law and is contrasted with fiqh, which refers to its human scholarly interpretations. In the historical course, fiqh sects have emerged that reflect the preferences of certain societies and state administrations on behalf of people who are interested in the theoretical (method) and practical application studies of laws and rules, but sharia has never been a valid legal system on its own. It has been used together with "customary (Urf) law" since Omar or the Umayyads.
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi was a Libyan revolutionary, politician and political theorist. He was the de facto leader of Libya from 1969 to 2011, first as Revolutionary Chairman of the Libyan Arab Republic from 1969 to 1977 and then as the Brotherly Leader of the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya from 1977 to 2011. Initially ideologically committed to Arab nationalism and Arab socialism, he later ruled according to his own Third International Theory.
The Senusiyya, Senussi or Sanusi are a Muslim political-religious tariqa and clan in colonial Libya and the Sudan region founded in Mecca in 1837 by the Grand Senussi, the Algerian Muhammad ibn Ali as-Senussi. Senussi was concerned with what he saw as both the decline of Islamic thought and spirituality and the weakening of Muslim political integrity.
Muhammad Idris bin Muhammad al-Mahdi as-Senussi was a Libyan political and religious leader who was King of Libya from 24 December 1951 until his overthrow on 1 September 1969. He ruled over the United Kingdom of Libya from 1951 to 1963, after which the country became known as simply the Kingdom of Libya. Idris had served as Emir of Cyrenaica and Tripolitania from the 1920s until 1951. He was the chief of the Senussi Muslim order.
The Egyptian Civil Code is the primary source of civil law for Egypt.
Abd el-Razzak el-Sanhuri or ‘Abd al-Razzāq al-Sanhūrī was an Egyptian jurist, law professor, judge and politician. He is best remembered as the primary author of the revised Egyptian Civil Code of 1948. Al-Sanhūrī's multi-volume masterwork, Al-Wasīṭ fī sharḥ al-qānūn al-madanī al-jadīd, a comprehensive commentary on the Egyptian Civil Code of 1948 and on civil law more generally, published during 1952-1970, remains in print and is highly regarded in legal and juristic professions throughout the Arab world. Al-Sanhūrī was Minister of Education in the Cabinet of Mahmoud El Nokrashy Pasha from 1945-1946 and again from late 1946 to 1948. He was subsequently appointed as President of the Egyptian Council of State. Al-Sanhūrī's tenure as President of the Council of State lasted until 1954, when he was dismissed by coercion. He has been described as "a personality of unique embroidery, never to reoccur". An avowed advocate of Arab unity, al-Sanhūrī was notably active in the legal and institutional reforms of different Arab countries throughout most of his adult life. He presided over a committee which drafted the Iraqi Civil Code, while at the same time serving as dean of the Baghdad Law School, from 1935 to 1937. He also contributed to a drafting project of a Syrian civil code throughout the early 1940s. Al-Sanhūrī also drafted various public and private laws of Kuwait, Sudan, Libya and Bahrain.
An Islamic state is a state that has a form of government based on Islamic law (sharia). As a term, it has been used to describe various historical polities and theories of governance in the Islamic world. As a translation of the Arabic term dawlah islāmiyyah it refers to a modern notion associated with political Islam (Islamism). Notable examples of historical Islamic states include the State of Medina, established by the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and the Arab Caliphate which continued under his successors and the Umayyads.
Qisas or Qiṣāṣ is an Islamic term interpreted to mean "retaliation in kind", "eye for an eye", or retributive justice. In classical/traditional Islamic law (sharia), the doctrine of qisas provides for a punishment analogous to the crime.
Diya in Islamic law, is the financial compensation paid to the victim or heirs of a victim in the cases of murder, bodily harm or property damage by mistake. It is an alternative punishment to qisas. In Arabic, the word means both blood money and ransom, and it is spelled sometimes as diyah or diyeh.
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Lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons in Libya face legal challenges not experienced by non-LGBT residents. Since the fall of Gaddafi regime in 2011, the status regarding homosexuality in Libya remains unchanged.
Libya's Petroleum Law No. 25 of 1955 was the law of Libya which authorised the allocation of land to individual oil prospectors, and the drilling of oil wells. It followed the Minerals Law of 1953, which established a system for obtaining permits to survey for petroleum. Despite the multiple changes of government and legal framework since its enactment, As of 2007 it remained in effect. It does not contain any provisions for natural gas drilling. In the 2000s, the Libyan government began work on drafting a new petroleum law.
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Libyan nationality law is regulated by the Constitution of Libya, as amended; the Libyan Nationality Law, and its revisions; and various international agreements to which the country is a signatory. These laws determine who is, or is eligible to be, a national of Libya. The legal means to acquire nationality, formal legal membership in a nation, differ from the domestic relationship of rights and obligations between a national and the nation, known as citizenship. Nationality describes the relationship of an individual to the state under international law, whereas citizenship is the domestic relationship of an individual and the nation. Libyan nationality is typically obtained under the principle of jus soli, i.e. by birth in Libya, or jus sanguinis, born to parents with Libyan nationality. It can be granted to persons with an affiliation to the country, or to a permanent resident who has lived in the country for a given period of time through naturalization.