International Review of Law

Editorial Foreword

2023-05-23

Back matter

ojsadmin production — 2023-05-23

Front Matter

2023-05-23

The Recommendations of the Annual International Conference of the College of Law, Qatar University titled "Legal Aid: Means and Challenges" 21-22 March 2022

Mohamed Yehia Mattar — 2023-05-23

The Recommendations of the Annual International Conference of the College of Law, Qatar University titled "Legal Aid: Means and Challenges" 21-22 March 2022

Mohamed Yehia Mattar — 2023-05-23

Mapping the Role of Law Clinics under the Legal Aid Act of Nigeria

Ernest Ojukwu, SAN — 2023-05-23

Legal aid and the provision of legal assistance to poor and indigent citizens forms a core to the promotion, protection and enforcement of fundamental human rights especially for a vast majority of Nigerians who live below the poverty line and cannot afford the services of legal practitioners which constitutes a major impediment to access to justice. When individuals have access to legal aid, they are able to enforce and seek the protection of their basic rights in line with the principles of equality and the rule of law. In furtherance of these objectives, the Legal Aid Act of Nigeria 2011 was passed, which provided a mechanism for a scheme to provide legal assistance to those entitled to such services. The law sets out the operational framework for legal aid, the scope of legal aid, those entitled to legal assistance and specially recognizes the role of non-state actors such as NGO’s, Law Clinics and Paralegals in providing legal aid.

This paper identifies and maps the role of law clinics as provided under the law in the areas of criminal defense, advice and assistance in civil matters and community legal services. The work will also highlight some of the challenges that hinder the effective provision of legal assistance under the scheme, which include insufficient personnel and funding for the scheme.

Legal Assistance to Women’s Rights to Housing, Land and Property in Syria

Mohamed Ekbal Ezzedeen Anak — 2023-05-23

This paper aims to enhance the understanding of the Women’s Housing, Land and Property (HLP) Rights in Syria as a crucial pillar to ensure social and economic development and increase the enjoyment of human rights. The paper explores two perspectives to address women’s HLP needs: gender and legal aid services. It also addresses challenges in accessing land that women face in prescribed gender roles, unequal power dynamics, and traditional norms that deny women the chance to access land adequately. To this end, the paper presents the results of desk reviews of the national and international studies that revealed the importance of addressing HLP Rights of women in the post-conflict context to prevent increasing poverty and vulnerability faced by women although it has not focused on the Syrian context directly. The paper provides an analysis of the legal framework used to support interventions on the access to HLP rights by displaced Syrian women. Contrary to what has been assumed, the laws alone are insufficient to guarantee equal access to HLP Rights, when structural gender inequality compromises women’s HLP Rights. This paper may constitute the object of future studies that could investigate the association between HLP Rights and sustainable development. A complex and inclusive approach needs to be adopted by engaging the relevant authorities, community, and international organisations to promote gender justice in addressing women’s HLP Rights and contribute to peacebuilding, sustainable return and reinforcing the rule of law.

The Role of Legal Aid in Establishing the Principle of Social Justice–A Comparative Study in the light of Comparative Legal Systems

Muhammad Hussain Muhammad Hilal — 2023-05-23

The concept of legal aid deserves to be addressed within the agenda of legislators in the current era, given that the concept promotes social justice, especially with regard to vulnerable groups, especially in light of the high attorney fees, and thus their right to equal access to judicial justice is threatened. Legal aid is a significant means of access to justice, as it is a basic embodiment of two major principles in constitutional life, namely, the rule of law and the principle of equality and non-discrimination within all societies.

In our research, we reached to connect between legal aid and social justice, as we see in theory the legal consensus on the importance of establishing social justice, but in reality, we appear to be facing a gap represented in the absence of the concept of the poor and vulnerable classes.

Legal Aid under Civil Law: Concept and Standards–A Comparative Analytical Study Ibrahim Abdelaziz Daoud

Ibrahim Abdelaziz Daoud — 2023-05-23

Although the legal aid concept reflects meanings conveying a protective nature, its realistic practice through civil law texts implicates several restrictions that negatively affect the rights of vulnerable categories. This necessitates reconsideration in the light of actual developments. The problem of the research lies in the inadequacy of the legal regulation of legal aid for persons with disabilities in the civil law. This led to the concept’s ambiguity, and the scarcity of jurisprudence studies or judicial applications that should contribute to activating the protective role of this concept.

Addressing this topic requires an analytical study of legal aid concept, and how it is embodied in both Egyptian and Qatari laws. This is for the sake of identifying the weaknesses and stagnation that require activation through specific legal mechanisms; which can be inspired by the French law, without prejudice to the legal constants that find their basis in Islamic Sharia.

Undoubtedly, this new conduct of the concept of legal aid enriches its content and extends the scope of its application to other categories of persons deprived of the exercise of their civil rights, such as the insane and the lunatic. These new applications, which realistically embody the legal aid concept, are among its hidden aspects, which the research uncovers, paving the way for in-depth future studies on an unexplored subject in Egyptian and Qatari laws.

Children Legal Aid for Access to Justice towards Attaining Basic Rights

Chaker Mzoughi — 2023-05-23

The study aims to invite the legislator to introduce and put into effect special legal assistance for children to access to justice. It also aims to propose a guide for the legislator when organizing this recently developed topic in Qatari law in the light of what has been approved by the International Convention on the Rights of the Child and ratified by the State of Qatar.

The study followed an analytical approach in its three sections (interpretation, criticism and findings) using the break-down and detailed elaboration of indications and proofs, as to convince the legislator of the study's assumptions.

The most important outcome of the study is that the legislator must first be aware of the importance of legal aid in ensuring the child’s basic rights, and explicitly seek ways to address this matter through the provision of clear answers to all questions raised in this study.

In comparison with previous studies, this study focused on the pre-litigation phase, which is considered a prerequisite for the litigation phase. The research topic does not cover the study of the child legal guarantees in lawsuits, litigations or execution of judgments, since many jurists have previously studied those matters. However, this study focuses on the child situation and rights in pre-litigation stages, as to pave the way for the lawsuit.

Legislative Reform of the Legal Aid System in the French Law

Samah Khemane — 2023-05-23

The French legislator has fully amended the provisions of the Legal Aid Law No. (647-91) of 10.07.1991, and introduced the Law No. (1717-2020), which entered into force in January 2021. This amendment has arisen after it became clear that the problem does not lie on acknowledging the principle of aid, but rather on activating and amending its laws to overcome the obstacles that impede its implementation. Therefore, this study aims to guide the legislator in the Arab countries for the best way to effectively implement this system.

In this regard, we follow the analytical approach to present the most significant amendments made by the French legislator.

The state’s interest in the legal aid system is a logical outcome of the state’s interest in human rights. Therefore, democratic states are seeking to activate this system with the capabilities they have. Paying attention to this system will lead to overcoming the problem of slow litigation by introducing alternative means under this system. This can only be made by responding to requests of lawyers and reconsidering the method for assessing their fees, and responding to litigants’ demands to extend the scope of its application to include a wider class of people with limited income.

This study has been prepared after the last amendment to French Aid Law. Therefore, the research is distinguished by its originality, as there are no research studies in Arabic language have previously studied this subject; due to the novelty of this amendment in 2021.

The Legal Aid System within the Scope of Civil Law

Abdulla Hamad Al-Khaldi — 2023-05-23

Legal aid system in Qatar is connected to the criminal law field, whereas the court appoints a lawyer for poor defendants to secure the right to defend themselves. However, the legal aid system provides protection to the civil cases too. Hence, this research tries to evaluate the system within the framework of the civil law field, and explore means to enhance it and improve its effectiveness to safeguard the principles of equality before the courts of law. This study used the inductive, deductive, and comparative methods.

The most important findings of this study are: the judicial aid system does not provide adequate assistance to vulnerable groups within the framework of civil law, and it requires suitable mechanisms to enhance its effectiveness in relation to the practice of the law practice profession and in legal clinics. Moreover, this research highlights the importance of developing awareness programs of the legal aid system, obliging lawyers to perform at least 30 hours yearly in pro bono work as a requirement for renewing the license to practice the law profession. This can be achieved through amending the law of practicing the law profession whilst providing proper exclusions for law students in their third year of study who are enrolled onto legal clinic programs. The study also suggests amending Article (4) of Code of Law Practice to add an exception for students of the College of Law, who are enrolled in Law Clinics programs after passing the third year.

Forms of Legal Aid: The Emirati Experience as a Model

Nasr Aboul Fotouh Farid Hassan — 2023-05-23

This research aims to address the types of legal aid, whether provided by government agencies, or civil society institutions, with a focus on highlighting the experience of the United Arab Emirates in providing various legal aids. The research problem is that the UAE legislator has not enacted legislation to regulate legal aid. Hence, we wonder about the adequacy of the forms of assistance provided by the state and community institutions to enforce the assistance system, and whether the UAE legislator needs to enact a law regulating it, as some other countries have done.

To achieve this goal, the study adopted the descriptive approach, by extrapolating the ideas contained in legal jurisprudence about legal aid, and linking the forms of legal aid and the legal system of the United Arab Emirates to find out the Emirati experience in the application of legal aid.

Among the main findings of the study, legal aid is one of the forms of providing legal assistance that enables people to access justice. Legal aid is divided into: aid of a preventive nature, and aid of a curative nature. Therefore, we recommended the issuance of an integrated law for the legal aid system, which explicitly takes into account the provision of legal aid, both preventive and curative. We also recommended the establishment of a fund to finance this type of aid, and that permanent resources be identified to finance it, to ensure continued support for the provision of legal aid.

Jurisprudential Rules and their Impact on Strengthening legal Aid System, Applied Study in Islamic Legislation

Yusra Ahmad Tawfiq Al-Yabroudi — 2023-05-23

The present study titled (Jurisprudential rules and their impact on strengthening legal aid system, applied study in Islamic legislation) examines a topic that has an impact on human life and development of societies, which is the impact of Jurisprudential rules given by the Qur’an and demonstrated by prophetical sayings (Hadith) concerning the prosperity and progress of legal aid system provided to it beneficiaries. The Jurisprudential rules with all terms, condition and ethics included within, are closely connected with the Islamic legislation. These rules seek to assist the oppressed and helping those in need and preserving their dignity in light of justice and solidarity through equal compatible and organized system. The researcher examined this topic using clear and easy manner and scientific precise methodology.

The inductive approach was used through extrapolating some Jurisprudential rules mentioned in the Qur’an and Sunnah, revealing their impact on the prosperity and development of the legal aid system. Then they were studied and analyzed according to the analytical approach. The study arrived at a set of findings and recommendations mentioned at the end of the research that clarifying the nature of interrelationship between Jurisprudential rules and their major influence on the legal aid system in the ancient and contemporary Islamic society.

Table of Content

2023-05-23

Table of Content

2023-05-23

Editorial Foreword

2023-05-23