The Foundation provides capacity building to Legal Drafters at the Bureau for Legislation and Opinion, Jordan
The Max Planck Foundation organised the first workshop in the project “Strengthening Legislative Compliance and Constitutional Interpretation in Jordan”, on drafting laws in times of emergency and protection of fundamental rights on 23-24 June 2020. The specific component aims to build the capacity of legal drafters and legal advisors of the Bureau for Legislation and Opinion (al-Diwan al-Tashri’ wa’l-Ra’i).
A first in many respects, the workshop was held fully in Arabic via online video-conferencing and was inaugurated by Dr Mark Erbel, First-Political Officer at the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany in Jordan and Dr Fedaa al-Hmoud, President of the Bureau for Legislation and Opinion and Dr Mustafa al-Nawaiseh, Secretary-General of the Bureau.
The Head of the Jordan Project at the Foundation formally welcomed the participants, while the Country Manager for Jordan moderated the workshop and discussions. Approximately 33 legal drafters, advisors and researchers actively engaged in the discussions.
Two Max Planck Foundation experts presented on the definition of ‘emergency’ and on the role of the executive, legislature and the judiciary in the operation, regulation and review of measures applied during a state of emergency. The key principles relevant to drafting emergency laws, limits to restriction of rights, necessity and proportionality were discussed in the context of Jordan’s Defence Law (1992). Other sessions were dedicated to the importance of independent judicial oversight of the state of emergency in Jordan and obligations under international human rights covenants and conventions. Practical exercises were integrated to provide opportunities to apply the knowledge gained throughout the workshop.
The project is generously funded by the German Federal Foreign Office.