House of Representatives Adopts by Unanimity of Votes Two Government Bills on Unconstitutionality of Laws, Arbitration and Conventional Mediation
The House of Representatives adopted on Monday, April 25, 2022, by unanimity of votes, two Government Bills. The first Bill concerns the unconstitutionality of laws, whereas the second is related to arbitration and conventional mediation. The adoption took place in a legislative plenary sitting chaired by Speaker of the House of Representatives Rachid Talbi El Alami, and attended by the Minister of Justice, Mr. Abdellatif Ouahbi, and the Minister Delegate to the Head of Government in Charge of the Relations with the Parliament and the Government Spokesperson, Mr. Mustapha Baïtas.
The Representatives unanimously adopted the Government Organic Bill 86.15 setting the conditions and procedures for pleading unconstitutionality of laws, which falls within the framework of the implementation of the provisions of Article 133 of the 2011 Constitution that grants the Constitutional Court a new constitutional right to rule on the plea of unconstitutionality of a law and to enhance the efficiency of the judiciary by limiting malicious and bad faith appeals that may impede the normal course of an effective and efficient justice.
The aforementioned Government organic bill had undergone legislative phases in the last legislative term, as it was adopted by the House of Representatives in second reading on February 6, 2018, but the Constitutional Court declared some of its articles unconstitutional.
The provisions of this law entitle citizens to defend their rights and freedoms through pleading the unconstitutionality of a law, by resorting to a set of mechanisms that enable them to interact with constitutional institutions. The same provisions shall also uphold the supremacy of the Constitution by bringing the inferior rule into conformity with the superior rule, in a way that contributes to the continuous review of the legal system in case it contains unconstitutional legal provisions. In addition, this law ensures the consolidation of individual and collective awareness of rights, freedoms and obligations, and the promotion of true citizen democracy.
During the same sitting, the Representatives adopted by unanimity of votes, in second reading, Government Bill 95.17 on arbitration and conventional mediation, which is considered to be one of the main pillars of the economic recovery experienced by the Kingdom of Morocco, thanks to its openness policy of the facilitation of foreign investments, revitalization of the business cycle and the achievement of development in our country.
This Government Bill featured the introduction of amendments to keep pace with changes in international trade and developments in the world of finance and business, and also positively respond to investors' ambitions, by simplifying and speeding up administrative and judicial investment procedures and requirements.
The adoption of this Law is part of implementing the High Royal Instructions underlined in the Royal Speech of August 20, 2009, on the occasion of the 56th anniversary of the Revolution of the King and the People, in which His Majesty stressed "the need to develop alternative judicial methods such as mediation, arbitration and reconciliation," which was reiterated in the High Royal Message addressed to the participants in the Second International Conference on Justice on October 21, 2019 in Marrakech.