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

KUWAIT LEGAL SYSTEM, COURT SYSTEM AND COURT LEVELS 1
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

KUWAIT LEGAL SYSTEM, COURT SYSTEM AND COURT LEVELS 3
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