Abstract
The Somali legal system had a very peculiar development. After colonisation, the independent country adopted a Civil law based legal system largely influenced by Italian law. The Civil Code adopted in 1973 was modeled on the Egyptian homologue enriched with other influences, mainly Italian. From the constitutional perspective, the country had three constitutions before the collapse of the state, followed recently by a provisional constitution that introduces a federal system to try to keep the unity of the State under the federal umbrella. The 1973 Somali Civil Code is formally still in force, as after the fall of Siad Barre the state failure brought with it the lack of any authority capable of updating or changing the legal system. This contribution first examines the Somali constitutional development, then gives a brief overview of Contract law in the Somali Civil Code in a comparative perspective. Thereafter, it frames this Contract law regime in the new federal (provisional) constitution, with emphasis on how this could affect possible future changes in the contract law regulation. This investigation also considers other federal experiences on the African Continent.
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Notes
- 1.
On the problems of the integration of the two legal systems arising from the unification of the two colonies see Contini (1967).
- 2.
Such codes are collected, together with the fundamental legislation in the private law sector, in Hassan (1978).
- 3.
Legislative Decree 1 June 1963 n. 1, as modified by the Law 12 December 1972 n. 84.
- 4.
- 5.
For a few examples see Mancuso (2014b).
- 6.
Sacco (1973), p. 28.
- 7.
See more in detail Kamto (1987).
- 8.
- 9.
A clear sign of this situation can be seen in the 1969 election, where lists of 88 different “political parties” were presented.
- 10.
Ad es., secondo l’Art. 71 comma 1, uno dei requisiti di eleggibilità del Presidente della Repubblica era quello di essere musulmano.
- 11.
Art. 50 Cost. del 1960.
- 12.
Art. 434 c. p. In this respect see Angeloni (1967).
- 13.
Artt. 411 e 412 c.p. See also Mantovani (1973).
- 14.
Law 21 October 1969 n. 1.
- 15.
Supreme Revolutionary Council Decree of 24 February 1970 n. 70.
- 16.
Law 21 October 1969 n. 1.
- 17.
Article 3 of 1979 Somali Constitution.
- 18.
Article 31 of 1979 Somali Constitution.
- 19.
On the 1979 Somali Constitution see Ajani (1982).
- 20.
On the 1990 Somali Constitution see Bootan (1995).
- 21.
See Art. 87, 92 and 93 of the 1990 Constitution.
- 22.
Art. 87 par. 1, 1990 Constitution.
- 23.
Art. 93 par. 1, 1990 Constitution.
- 24.
Art. 3, 1990 Constitution.
- 25.
Art. 113, 1990 Constitution.
- 26.
On the fall of the Siad Barre’s regime and the opening of the failed state phase see Issa-Salwe (1994).
- 27.
Battera (2005), p. 27.
- 28.
Nemova and Hartford (2004).
- 29.
Winter (2004).
- 30.
On the process that brought Somaliland to proclaim independence, and on the recent history of the territory, see Lewis (2008).
- 31.
On the issue of the lack of international recognition of Somaliland see Government of Somaliland, Briefing Paper. The Case for Somaliland’s International Recognition as an Independent State, (2007) Hargeisa, Ministry of Foreign Affairs (unsure how to cite this source).
- 32.
Mancuso (2014a).
- 33.
This code was drafted by a famous Islamist, D. Santillana.
- 34.
The code was prepared by the French scholar M. Manoury.
- 35.
- 36.
After taking power, the Nimeiri regime, which looked to Nasser’s government in Egypt as a model, formed a commission to review the Sudanese legal systems dominated by twelve Egyptian jurists. In 1970 this commission unveiled a new Civil code of 917 sections, copied in large part from the Egyptian Civil code of 1949, with slight modifications based on the Civil codes of other Arab countries. This major change in Sudanese legal system was controversial because it disregarded existing laws and customs, introduced many new legal terms and concepts from Egyptian law without source material necessary to interpret the codes, and presented serious problems for legal education and training. Following a 1971 abortive coup attempt against the Nimeiri government and increasing political disillusionment with Egypt, the minister of justice formed a committee of Sudanese lawyers to re-examine the Egyptian-based codes (draft commercial and penal codes were also published in 1971). In 1973 the government repealed these codes, returning the country’s legal system to its pre-1970 common-law basis. On such events see Guadagni (1976), pp. 183–198. On the Sudanese Civil code see Khalil (1971), pp. 624–644.
- 37.
Sacco (1985), p. 197.
- 38.
Arts. 197–199. As noted by Sacco (1985), p. 198, this solution is borrowed by the French code, while the solution chosen by the Italian legislator was different.
- 39.
Art. 212.
- 40.
Arts. 223–229.
- 41.
Arts. 232–242.
- 42.
Arts. 272–299.
- 43.
Art. 276.
- 44.
Arts. 300–311.
- 45.
Arts. 312–319.
- 46.
Arts. 320–329.
- 47.
Arts. 338–346.
- 48.
Arts. 347–369.
- 49.
Arts. 371–385.
- 50.
Arts. 386–414.
- 51.
Arts. 88–99.
- 52.
Arts. 89–100 of the Egyptian code.
- 53.
Arts. 88, 90, 93 and 96.
- 54.
Arts. 89 n. 2 and 97.
- 55.
Art. 89.
- 56.
Art. 1351 Italian Civil code and 101 Egyptian Civil code. See also Art. 22 of the Swiss Code of Obligations.
- 57.
Art. 100.
- 58.
Arts. 119–126 Somali Civil code and 120–127 Egyptian Civil code.
- 59.
Art. 127 Somali Civil code and 129 Egyptian Civil code. See Sacco (1985), p. 201.
- 60.
Arts. 135–141. In the Egyptian code the matter is covered by Arts. 138–144.
- 61.
Arts. 142–153 and 154–158.
- 62.
Arts. 145–156 and 157–161 Egyptian Civil Code.
- 63.
Sacco (1985), p. 201.
- 64.
Arts. 415–680.
- 65.
The term “work” is hereby used to identify a contract whereby the contractor undertakes to produce a work under payment of a compensation by the principal. This type of contract is identified as contrat d’entreprise in French or contratto d’appalto in Italian, but a similar type of contract does not exist in common law jurisdictions in such general terms, where the need for a specific consideration brings to identify specific applications of it, like the procurement or the building contracts.
- 66.
Here the pattern used is the Swiss. See Art. 480 of the Swiss Code of Obligations, after Art. 729 of the Egyptian Civil code and Art. 634 of the Somali Civil code.
- 67.
Against the Islamic prohibition of aleatory contracts, the insurance contract is fully recognised in the Somali Civil code (Arts. 644–650), even if in a less detailed way than the Egyptian Civil code (Arts. 747–771) where different kind of insurance contracts were specifically regulated. On the relation between Islamic law and the insurance contract see Kettani and Sacco (1982), pp. 387–406 and the authors cited therein.
- 68.
Art. 3 par. 6. Its primacy in the hierarchy of legislative sources infers from the first paragraph of Art. 101, where it is indicated as the first regulatory instrument to which traditional rules must comply.
- 69.
Art. 8.
- 70.
To preserve their impartiality and dignity, the rule prohibits them from being part of political associations or parties.
- 71.
Art. 5 Somaliland Const.
- 72.
More details in Mancuso (2014b).
- 73.
Arts. 2 and 3 Jubaland Const.
- 74.
Art. 2 par. 2 Jubaland Const.
- 75.
Art. 2 Somali prov. Const.
- 76.
Art. 3 par. 1, and 4 par. 1 Somali prov. Const.
- 77.
Art. 55 identifies two houses of parliament, the House of People and the Upper House.
- 78.
Legislative competence is vested in the parliament (Art. 71); the executive power is entrusted to the prime minister, assisted by the deputy prime minister and the minister running all together the council of ministers (Art. 97); while the judicial function is vested in the courts (Art. 106).
- 79.
Art. 31 Somali prov. Constitution.
- 80.
- 81.
Thiam (1972), p. 86.
- 82.
See Art. 55 of the Ethiopian Const. There the Civil Code is not expressly indicated, but from the wording of n. 6 of the Article (“Civil laws which the Federal Council deems necessary to maintain and sustain one economic community”) the fact that (at least) contract law must be regulated at federal level can be easily inferred. See also Arts. 51 and 52 of the same Const.
- 83.
Art. 1 Comorian Const.
- 84.
Art. 9 Comorian Const.
- 85.
On the legal framework of Comores see Mancuso (2012), pp. 73–93.
- 86.
See J. C. Onyemere, The Law of Contract and Contractual Relationship, (2012) Owerri, Odesaa at 10; I. E. Sagay, Nigerian Law of Contract, (1985) London, Sweet & Maxwell, at vi.
- 87.
Respectively Arts. 110, 111 and 112 Sudanese Const.
- 88.
Art. 112 par. 3, Sudanese Const.
- 89.
This is the opinion of Ali Gasmelseid (2006), p. 179.
- 90.
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Acknowledgement
The preparation of the present chapter has been possible also thanks to the grant of the Van Calker Research Fellowship at the Swiss Institute of Comparative Law in Lausanne (Switzerland) for the period May–June 2017.
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Mancuso, S. (2019). Somali Contract Law: Constitutional and Comparative Perspectives. In: Siliquini-Cinelli, L., Hutchison, A. (eds) More Constitutional Dimensions of Contract Law. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-15107-2_5
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