Engineering of asymmetric federalism in Iraq: proposals and solutions

Authors

  • Aymen Ahmed Mohammed Center for Strategic and International Studies / University of Baghdad / Baghdad / Iraq

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.58298/782024616

Keywords:

Federal government, Kurdistan territory, asymmetric federalism, fiscal federalism, federal budget, federal oil and gas law

Abstract

The research sheds light on the institutional structure of Iraqi federalism, which faces many challenges as it is an experiment that is still incomplete and in continuous development, under relatively unstable political, economic, and societal conditions that are likely to occur with risks. Federal institutions operate under a complex security circumstance, fragile national unity, and an economic situation. Critical, and the absence of a previously federal and democratic culture, and there is no standard that can be used to evaluate the work of federal institutions, because every federal experience is a unique experience in itself. Not to mention the unbalanced relationship between the federal government and the regional governments, which was established by the Iraqi Constitution of 2005. What strained the political process and threatened the stability of Iraq was the process of distributing power among the various Iraqi components and the approach to political containment, which led to the complexity of the federal decision-making process and challenged the status of government institutions. On the other side, there is the Kurdistan region, with its broad decentralized political powers. which has asymmetric relations with the federal government, and works to strengthen its independence. It applies the articles of the 2005 Constitution and violates it at the same time in order to assert its interests and control the affairs of the region, and to prevent the federal government from having any effective role in Issues of the borders of the Kurdistan Region and Kirkuk and the control and management of oil resources. Despite the presence of all these problems, we see the role of the Federal Supreme Court as effective in settling disputes and resolving conflicts between the federal government and the regional government through a set of binding decisions that corrected the course of political action and contributed to resolving the outstanding problems, especially those Related to oil resources management.

References

References:

First: Constitutions, laws and decisions

- Constitution of the Republic of Iraq of 2005.

- State Administration Law for the Transitional Period of 2004.

- Law No. (23) of 2021, Federal General Budget of the Republic of Iraq for the Fiscal Year 2021, Iraqi Gazette, Issue No. 4625, April 12, 2021.

- Kurdistan Regional Government Oil and Gas Law No. 22 of 2007.

- Law No. (13) of 2023, the Federal General Budget of the Republic of Iraq for the fiscal years (2023-2024-2025), The Iraqi Gazette, No. 4726, on June 26, 2023.

- Resolution No. 26 of 11/7/2002, published in Kurdistan Gazette, Issue (38), dated 12/30/2002.

- Decision of the Federal Supreme Court, No. 170/Federal/2022, official website of the Federal Supreme Court, https://www.iraqfsc.iq/index-ar.php.

Second: Books

- Abdul Khaleq Nasser Al-Amiri, Al-Barzani Mustafa and the Kurdish issue in Iraq 1931-1975, Dar Al-Jawahiri, Baghdad, 2017.

- Abdul Rahman Suleiman Zebari, The Legal Status of the Kurdistan Region of Iraq - Under the Rules of Public International Law - A Critical Analytical Study, Mokryani Printing and Publishing Foundation, Erbil, 2002.

- Anwar Shah, Comparative Reflections on the Challenges Emerging in Fiscal Federalism, in a group of scholars, Global Dialogue on Federalism, edited by: Raoul Blindenbach and Abbeville Ostein-Carus, Part IV, Forum on Federalists/Canada, 2007.

- B. C. Smith: Decentralization (The Territorial Dimension of the State), Allen & Unwin, London, 1985.

- Farah Shaker, The Federal System in Iraq: Its Origins, Performance, and Importance, Translated by: Ali Al-Haris, Al-Rafidain Center for Dialogue, Beirut, 2021.

- George Anderson, Introduction to Federalism, Federation Forum, Canada, 2007.

- Khamoush Omar Abdullah, Secession in Light of Comparative Constitutional Systems, Part One, Zein Legal Publications, Beirut, 2022.

- Khawalid Sonia, Asymmetric federalism in political systems - Spain as a model -, Algeria, Mohamed Kheidar University - Biskra, Faculty of Law and Political Science, 2018.

- Larry Diamond, Democracy: Its Development and Ways to Strengthen it. Translated by: Fawzia Naji Jassim Al-Diffai. Baghdad: Dar Mamoun for Translation and Publishing, 2001.

- Marina Spronova, Constitutional Transformations in Iraq, translated by: (Faleh Al-Hamrani), Adnan Library, Baghdad.

- Mustafa Rasool Hussein, The Problem of Financial Imbalance Among the Units Component of Federalism in Iraq, International Conference on Law, Jahan University, Sulaymaniyah.

- Ofra Bengio, Iraqi Kurds Building a State Within a State, translated by: Abdul Razzaq Abdullah Boutani, Dar Al-Saqi, Beirut, 2014.

Third: Research

- Abdel Fattah Abdel Razzaq Mahmoud and Soran Ali Hassan, The asymmetry between the units composing the federal state and its impact on the Iraqi federal model, Journal of the University of Dohuk (Humanities and Social Sciences), Volume 23, Issue 1, Faculty of Law, Saladin University, Kurdistan Region - Iraq, 2020.

- Hanan bin Abdul Razzaq, Mechanisms for Consolidating Internal Stability in the Nation State from the Perspective of Kimlika - Spain as a Model -, Al-Mufakir Magazine, electronic link: http/thesis.unis biskra.dz/2998/1/ter/ c3/a8se-136-2017-pdf .

- Karwan Orahman Ismail, The Constitutional Organization of the Powers of the Regions in the Federal State (A Comparative Study), Journal of the Human Development University, Volume: 3, Issue (2), Sulaymaniyah, Kurdistan Region-Iraq, June 2017.

Additional Files

Published

2024-09-30

Issue

Section

Original research papers

How to Cite

Engineering of asymmetric federalism in Iraq: proposals and solutions. (2024). قضايا سياسية, 78, 1-26. https://doi.org/10.58298/782024616

Similar Articles

1-10 of 63

You may also start an advanced similarity search for this article.