Understanding Kuwait's Legal System, Court System, and Court Levels

In this document we will discuss about Understanding Kuwait's Legal System, Court System, and Court Levels and below are the summary points of this document:- Kuwait's legal system is a civil law system influenced by Islamic religious law, French civil law, and English common law. Sharia law is the basis of Kuwait's legal system, with different interpretations due to the existence of Sunni and Shia sects. The Kuwaiti constitution guarantees fundamental rights and freedoms, including equality, freedom of speech, and freedom of assembly.

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KUWAIT LEGAL SYSTEM, COURT SYSTEM AND COURT LEVELS
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Kuwait's Legal System
The legal system in Kuwait is a civil law system modeled from a mixture of Islamic
religious law, French civil law, and English common law (Nyulawglobal.org, 2019). It is mainly
based on the doctrine of sharia law where judges interpret and amend these laws. Kuwait is a
state dominated by the power of religion and humankind where inequality between Muslims and
non-Muslims and men and women is a very sensitive issue. However, the existence of two sects
of Muslims: Shia and Sunni result in different interpretations of the Islamic (sharia) law.
Article 70 of Kuwait's constitution stipulates the ratification of the international treaties
but because of the issues addressed above, the legislative and judicial authorities have not put
sufficient attention to implement the constitution. The government has put limitations to freedom
of religion, of meeting and association, freedom of media, freedom of expression and of
circulation. As embedded in the constitution, these rights fall under the doctrine of international
law but this is the opposite in Kuwait (Journal.faaa.ro, 2019).
Kuwait primarily operates under Islamic law under the tandem of a civil law system.
Sharia, an Arabic word implying ‘the right path' covers all aspects of private and public life. This
system organizes these aspects into five categories: forbidden, disliked, permitted, recommended
and obligatory. The Quran is the major source of sharia law. It is perceived as the word of god
revealed to the faithful by Prophet Mohammed via angel Gabriel and Sunnah as well as
teachings and prophecies. There are two Islamic schools in Kuwait: Sunni and Shiite besides
other schisms groups: Sufis, mutazilis, Kharijites etc.
Sunni Muslims recognize Islamic jurists and Muhammad's companions on various issues
like Ijma and legal scholars' analogy referred to as Qiyas. On the other hand, Shia rejects Qiyas

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and Ijma as the fundamentals of sharia law. At the basis of the functioning and organization of
Kuwait is the constitution established in 1959. This document stipulates that Islamic law is the
basis of legislation in the state and this is outlined in article 2 (ARALF, 2019). The constitution
guarantees a system of values and fundamental rights. These values and rights include equality,
freedom, peace, justice to the citizens. In this constitution, equality in responsibility and rights,
as well as personal freedom, are protected regardless of religion, language, religion, and race.
There are provisions on the constitution that recognize freedom of speech, freedom of
meetings, freedom of publications and press. Anybody is entitled to work and join unions legally
provided they do not infringe the norms. From these precepts and provisions, a state should be
non-discriminatory from national, linguistic and ethnic perspectives. To give the citizens human
rights protection, Kuwait has formed a parliamentary committee which was established in 1992
(Journal.faaa.ro, 2019). It forms and establishes motions for legislation that infringe human
rights. This committee also monitors the government's actions of solving human rights
complaints. The committee is also mandated with forming an inquiry commission to address
these infringements as stipulated by law.
The Judicial System
The court system in Kuwait is codified as per the Islamic law under the doctrine of
Napoleonic code (Nyulawglobal.org, 2019). The state cannot intervene but only in areas not
regulated by sharia law or providing an interpretation where a religious provision becomes
ambiguous to interpret. The judicial precedent used in the trial case cannot be used in the ruling
of another. Litigation provided by this type of system only applies for a specific circumstance
without adhering to anterior rulings from other cases. Even when a judge would like consistency

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when giving a ruling is not enforced legally to provide a judicial precedent. The judges guide
themselves with doctrines like Ijma which is elaborated by architects of Islamic law. These
doctrines are based on the opinions of the community regarding a judicial solution as the law
stipulates.
The structure of the court system is borrowed from the Quran and other religious books
where the defining values are encompassed on the Islamic society with the basis of benevolence
and justice. The Quran opposes injustice (‘udwan') and oppression (‘zulm') implying that any
society formed under these concepts is not an Islamic society (Journal.faaa.ro, 2019). According
to the Quran, Islamic society has a duty to develop a nation based equality and denial of evil
between people. The Muslim society requires that the judicial system be primordially raising a
society without injustice and oppression to achieve the truth.
The other principle applied in the court system is amiably solving of litigations since this
is the best verdict. This is the foundation of Islamic law where both social and juridical
perception is an integral part of mediation and arbitration which are the final resort of a judicial
solution. However, there are some family and business issues where there are intimate and
private questions and an elder is called to intervene (ARALF, 2019). An imam is the master of
family or a house with equal authority and prestige and solves these issues amicably.
As per the constitutional provision, the court exercises the juridical powers named as
emir. These courts are capable of solving issues related to penal, commercial, civil, marital and
penal litigations. Three degrees of jurisdiction are employed in Kuwait: normal courts, appeal
courts and supreme courts. These bodies have the right to commute or pardon sentences. The
decisions made by ordinary courts cannot be contested by higher courts. The working of the

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court system is supervised and assured by the judicial council. This is made up of the vice
president and the president of the cassation court (Nyulawglobal.org, 2019). It is also composed
of the vice president and the president of the appeal court, Kullyia courts, the district attorney
and deputy minister of justice.
The judicial council applies sanctions to judges through its competency. The council
exercises its authority by removing or suspending judges from their levels. These disciplinary
actions are the mandates of the judicial disciplinary council. For all cases involving a particular
person, the statute is divided into three sections: Shia, Sunni and a non-Muslim (applied to the
religious minorities). Family courts only recognize half of the women's testimony while
addressing wholly the testimony of men (Journal.faaa.ro, 2019). In other instances, the court
considers these testimonies equally between men and women.
Court Levels
Kuwait is comprised of two court levels. The first court level in Kuwait is the subordinate
courts. These courts include summary court, the court of first instance and the high court of
appeal. Each district in Kuwait has a summary court presided by a judge. Summary courts deal
with commercial and civil cases (Journal.faaa.ro, 2019). The tribunal formed by this court hear
issues related to criminal cases, commercial and civil cases, and personal status Religious courts
(Shia and Sunni) hears issues related to a family while domestic courts give ruling to non-
Muslims. The high court of appeals is comprised of two chambers and has five divisions. The
first chamber hears civil and personal cases while the other chamber offers jurisdiction involving
criminal and commercial cases. The military court which hears issues involving military officers.

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The other court level in Kuwait is the highest courts. These courts include the Supreme
Court and the constitutional court. The constitutional court which holds the highest rank in
Kuwait judiciary. It has five members and provides interpretation to the constitution and gives
jurisdictions to issues contravening the constitution. There is also the Supreme Court and the
cessation court made up of two divisions (cessation and appeal). The Supreme Court has five
judges for each circuit.
Amir appoints all Kuwaiti judges to preside courts. This is a consultative body comprised
of the ministry of justice officials and Kuwaiti judges. This body is structured following
recommendations from the judicial council. There is also a subfield in the court levels which
outlines the title and numbers of judges and the kind of cases they hear. This is mainly based on
constitutional, administrative and criminal law (Indexmundi.com, 2019). The term of office and
selection of a judge includes the associated officials and organizations responsible for appointing
and nominating judges as well as a brief outline of these processes.
The selection subfield is independent of Kuwait's court system from other levels of the
government. Also in this subfield is the tenure of judges either lifelong appointments, retirement
ages, and contract terms. In the subordinate level, courts lower in the hierarchy in Kuwait are
listed. The first instance courts are capable of making decisions which sanction victims to less
than years with fines of about 750 dollars. There are supplemented specialized instances for
constitutional, military and administrative causes. The sentences issued by these specialized
instances are irrevocable and definitive and cannot be appealed. The decisions from a
constitutional court prevail before any decisions of the inferior judicial instance
(Indexmundi.com, 2019). However, these judges employ impartiality to the law in their rulings.

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Such an instance is the Supreme Court ruling of 2008 when it upheld a ruling to sentence a
member of the royal family (Talal Nasser) to death found guilty for dealing in drugs.

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References
Journal.faaa.ro. (2019). [Online] Available at: http://www.journal.faaa.ro/wp
content/uploads/2015/12/1_2_article_fisal_al_temimi.pdf [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
Brown, N., Clancy-Smith, J., Gershoni, I., Owen, R. and Sayigh, Y. (2009). Rule of Law in the
Arab World, Volume 6. Cambridge, GBR: Cambridge University Press.
Indexmundi.com. (2019). Kuwait Legal system - Government. [Online] Available at:
https://www.indexmundi.com/kuwait/legal_system.html [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
Nyulawglobal.org. (2019). Kuwait’s Legal System and Legal Research - GlobaLex. [Online]
Available at: http://www.nyulawglobal.org/globalex/Kuwait.html [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].
ARALF. (2019). Lawyers & Legal Consultants in Kuwait - Abdul Razzaq Law firm. [Online]
Available at: https://www.arazzaqlaw.com/legal-system-in-kuwait/ [Accessed 21 Jan. 2019].