Legal Components of the Emergence of the Iraqi State

Abstract

The importance of the law existence and its necessity in regulating social relations between individuals cannot be denied, as practical reality imposes its legislation and instructions that contribute to facilitate coping with this reality. Hence, the legal foundations for the establishment of a fully-fledged state are no more than necessary elements for the establishment and sustainability of the state, and to achieve the goals for which this state was found. The existence of the constitution as one of the components of the state building, as a codified charter, does not mean that the government’s policy in that country that has this constitution is a constructive constitutional policy, as most of the ruling dictatorships consider the importance of writing the constitution, with explicit references to avoiding racism and freedom of expression in its folds, but the reality is different; The constitution may include texts that accord with the interests of this authority, or that it belittles its practices and violations in front of people. And if we look closely at the emergence of the Iraqi state, we will find it originating with authentic roots and an ancient civilization drawn by the Sharia of Hamo Rabbi and illuminated by the radiance of Islam and in laying the correct foundations for enacting laws and achieving justice among individuals for what the Islamic Sharia contains extremely precise divine texts translated by the Sunnah of the Messenger Mohammed and Al-Elbait, upon them be the best of prayer and complete submission. So, men of law, judiciary, Iraqi clans and clerics had their impact in building the Iraqi state, inspired by the glories of their civilization and their Eternal Islamic law. But this way of state establishment did not come out of nowhere and was not easily accessible, rather, it went through several temporal difficulties, represented by the invasion of Baghdad by Hulagu, followed by the Ottoman occupation and then British occupation, and what each of them caused of conflicts and armed conflicts that burdened Iraq and the Iraqis as they sought to build an independent country governed by the Iraqis themselves away from influence and subordination, and the legal elites were at the forefront in all eras from previous eras, and seeking to find laws that establish the advancement of the Iraqi state and safeguard the rights of its citizens while it is under pressure from the occupation and the tyrants. The legal elites played their role in forming the Iraqi state by enacting the first Iraqi constitution (Basic Law) which was approved in 1925 as the first constitution for Iraq as well as preparing the election laws democratically, which illustrates their constructive role in establishing the Iraqi State during the period of the British Mandate.