Foundations of Egyptian law: ancient and Islamic traditions, Ottoman and French influence, the Civil Code of 1948, sources and hierarchy of law, Sharia and legislation, and legal pluralism

Ancient and Islamic roots. Ancient Egypt had a long tradition of written administration and justice built on the idea of Maat, order and truth, with officials and judges deciding disputes. After the Arab conquest of 641, Islamic law became the main body of law. Egypt was a centre of Islamic jurisprudence: the great jurist al-Shafi’i taught and died in Cairo (820), Al-Azhar was founded in about 970, and several schools of jurisprudence were followed, with the Hanafi school, favoured by the Ottomans, becoming the official school of the courts after 1517.

French influence and the modern codes. Napoleon’s expedition (1798–1801) and the reforms of Muhammad Ali after 1805 opened Egypt to European ideas. In 1875 the Mixed Courts were created to hear cases involving foreigners, applying a civil code modelled on the French Code, and in 1883, under British occupation, the Native (National) Courts adopted similar codes for Egyptians. After the capitulations protecting foreigners ended (Montreux Convention, 1937) and the Mixed Courts were abolished (1949), Egypt adopted its own Civil Code of 1948 (Law 131 of 1948), prepared by Sanhuri, which combined French and other civil-law models with Egyptian practice and Islamic jurisprudence. The Penal Code (1937), the Criminal Procedure Code (1950) and the Commercial Code follow the same tradition. Egypt became a republic in 1953, and several constitutions have followed, the current one dating from 2014, amended in 2019.

The sources. The main source of law is legislation. The Constitution is supreme. Beneath it come laws (qawanin) passed by the House of Representatives, decree-laws issued by the President in cases the Constitution allows, presidential decrees, decisions of the Prime Minister and ministerial decisions, which implement laws through executive regulations, and local rules. The Civil Code itself lists the sources of law in its first article: legislation first, then, if there is no applicable provision, the principles of Islamic Sharia, then custom, then the principles of natural law and the rules of equity. Judicial decisions are not formally binding, but the decisions of the Court of Cassation, the Supreme Administrative Court and above all the Supreme Constitutional Court are highly authoritative, and the Supreme Constitutional Court’s judgments on constitutionality bind everyone.

Article 2. Article 2 of the Constitution states that Islam is the religion of the State, that Arabic is its official language and that the principles of Islamic Sharia are the principal source of legislation. In 1985 the Supreme Constitutional Court held that this wording, which had been amended in 1980, binds the legislature in laws made after it, but does not make earlier laws unconstitutional, so the earlier codes, including provisions on interest in the Civil Code, remained valid. The principles that count are the definitive, clear texts of Sharia; on all other questions the legislature has room for reasoned interpretation (ijtihad). In practice, Sharia principles are visible in personal status, inheritance and wills, and in some criminal and commercial rules, while the rest of the legal system applies statutes that follow the civil-law tradition.

What is unified. Egypt has one system of state courts (Module 4) and one body of civil, commercial, administrative and criminal law for everyone, including foreigners. Religious courts for Muslims, Christians and Jews were abolished in 1955, and personal status disputes are now decided by the state’s family courts, applying the substantive rules that depend on the parties’ religion.

• What differs. For Muslims, personal status (marriage, divorce, custody, maintenance and wills) is governed by statutes drawn from Islamic jurisprudence, and inheritance follows statutory rules based on Sharia. Article 3 of the Constitution provides that the principles of the laws of Egyptian Christians and Jews are the main source of legislation governing their personal status, religious affairs and the choice of their spiritual leaders. The details of how this works in practice are explained in Modules 3 and 6.
• What stays common to all. Contracts, torts, property, companies, employment, tax and crime are governed by the same statutes for Muslims and non-Muslims alike.
• For a foreigner. The personal status of foreigners is often governed by their own national law, subject to public order, so check which law applies before a marriage, divorce or will.