Organisation of justice – judicial systems
Introduction about Palestine Judiciary System
Those who have an idea about the legal system in Palestine – throughout the ages – know that it has differed from one period to another due to political, social and economic conditions Palestine went through because of the change in regimes and powers that ruled it. It was under the Ottoman reign for a period of time where the Ottoman legislations were applied, then it went through the British Mandate that has issued several laws, regulations and orders which have been applied to it being one of the United Kingdom colonies.
This continued until the end of the British Mandate on Palestine in 1948, where it was replaced with the Israeli occupation taking over part of Palestine and establishing the so-called State of Israel. Israel issued legislation serving the occupation in the Judaization of Palestinian land. The remainder of Palestine was divided to two territories, one was subject to the Egyptian administration (Gaza Strip), and the other (West Bank) was subject to the Jordanian Administration from 1948 to 1950. Jordanian laws were then applied until 1967 when Israel occupied the remainder of Palestine (Gaza Strip and the West Bank) where it issued numerous Military Orders that caused nullifying and amending several existing laws and regulations to serve the interests of this occupation and give it control over Palestine.
When the Palestinian National Authority (PA) arrived and took over a part of Palestine, the President of the PA, Yasser Arafat issued decision No. 1 of 1994 to continue using laws, regulations and orders existing before 05 June 1967 in the Palestinian territories (West Bank and Gaza Strip) until they are unified.