The States’ Constitutions Compatibility Study was discussed during the meeting with the Chief Justice
On 4 February 2021, the Max Planck Foundation’s Project Coordinator and Senior Legal Advisor met with HE Bashe Yusuf Ahmed, the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Somalia and presented copies of the States’ Constitutions Compatibility Study; which is a comparative review of all five Federal Member State Constitutions in Somalia with the Federal Provisional Constitution of 2012.
Under the German Federal Foreign Office funded project Capacity Building and Legal Advice on Political Decentralisation and Federalism in Somalia, the Foundation developed a comprehensive study analysing the compatibility of all five Federal Member States’ Constitutions with the Federal Provisional Constitution. The study aims at facilitating the creation of a coherent constitutional legal framework; and identified a number of issues ranging from differences in terminologies to open regulatory contradictions which are critical to address in the harmonisation process of the States’ Constitutions with the Federal Provisional Constitution.
The Supreme Court of Somalia will need to play a significant role in the interpretation and, when needed, harmonisation of the Federal Member States’ Constitutions with the Federal Provisional Constitution. The Chief Justice, therefore, very much appreciated the publication of the study and commended the Foundation for its efforts towards disseminating knowledge of the constitutional and regulatory frameworks of the Federal Republic of Somalia.
The States’ Constitutions Compatibility Study will be shared with other stakeholders in the coming weeks so as to further disseminate knowledge on its findings within the Somali judiciary.