The nature of independent bodies in the 2005 Iraqi constitution

Abstract

Abstract The issue of independent bodies is one of the recently existing issues in the public law; it emerged firstly in France in the year 1941 through the ordinary legislation, subsequently the French legislature, in 1975, created other independent bodies which were named in France as the independent authorities which have been recurrently created in France. The main characteristic of these bodies is that they work independently from the executive authority, this characteristic did not exist elsewhere as the counterparts of these bodies was subject to the executive authority such as in United States. The Iraqi constitution of 2005 has applied the French approach with some slight differences do not touch the gist of the French model which has been adopted in Iraq. Despite that, there has been an amount of ambiguity in the legal treatment of these bodies in the constitutional wording which has arisen some questions about the nature of these bodies can be comparable to those which were discussed under the French jurisdiction such as whether these bodies are public authorities or they are mere advisory bodies or such as whether these bodies could be deemed as a four authority in addition to the classic three authorities. The current Iraqi constitution is based on the rule of law as it comprehensively states liberties and rights with guarantees to apply them by the public authorities which include judicial censorship on executive and legislative authorities, moreover, there is another guarantee which has been stated in the Iraqi constitution which is the independent bodies which can work to censor actions of government. In this article, the author tried to examine the nature of these bodies that the Iraqi constitution of 2005 stated, the article has been divided into two sections, in the first one the author will study the functions of the state whereas the second will demonstrate the independent bodies in Iraq.