Comparative law and justice/Egypt

Part of the Comparative law and justice Wikiversity Project

Subject classification: this is a comparative law and justice resource.

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Basic Information

The Country of Egypt has the 16th largest population in the world, of 78,866,635 this also makes it the 3rd most populated its Continent. This number is broken down with 33% falling between the ages of 0 and 14 (male 13,308,407/female 12,711,900), 62.7% falling between the ages of 15 and 64 (male 25,138,546/female 24,342,230), and 4.3% being older then 65 years old (male 1,546,774/female 1,818,778).

It Is located in the South East Hemisphere having a climate of a desert which consist of heavy heat,dry summers and moderate winters. It lies on the north east part of Africa, bordering the Mediterranean Sea, between Libya and the Gaza Strip, and the Red Sea north of Sudan, and includes the Asian Sinai Peninsula. The total area of egypt is 1,001,450 sq km, 995,450 sq km of this area is land, only 6,000 sq km is water.

Egypt is known for its capital city of Cairo which has a population of 15,750,000. This city lies on the Nile river which was the bases of this cities growth, in its early years. Mainly due to the fact that the rest of the country is made of desert.

The Country of Egypt is very concentrated in its Religious and Ethnic background. 90% of the population Is Muslim most of which are Sunni Muslims, the rest are broken down between Coptic (9%) and Christian (1%). Parallel to this is the concentration of Ethnicity, in Egypt 99.6% of the people are Egyptian, the other 0.4% is broken down as other . Because the ethnic group of Egyptian is so heavy in Egypt the main language spoken is Arabic, it is the official language of the country and is know by the bulk of the population. The other two languages that are spoken mainly by the educated class are French and English.

Brief History

History: "The regularity and richness of the annual Nile River flood, coupled with semi-isolation provided by deserts to the east and west, allowed for the development of one of the world's great civilizations. A unified kingdom arose circa 3200 B.C., and a series of dynasties ruled in Egypt for the next three millennia. The last native dynasty fell to the Persians in 341 B.C., who in turn were replaced by the Greeks, Romans, and Byzantines. It was the Arabs who introduced Islam and the Arabic language in the 7th century and who ruled for the next six centuries. A local military caste, the Mamluks took control about 1250 and continued to govern after the conquest of Egypt by the Ottoman Turks in 1517. Following the completion of the Suez Canal in 1869, Egypt became an important world transportation hub, but also fell heavily into debt. Ostensibly to protect its investments, Britain seized control of Egypt's government in 1882, but nominal allegiance to the Ottoman Empire continued until 1914. Partially independent from the UK in 1922, Egypt acquired full sovereignty with the overthrow of the British-backed monarchy in 1952. The completion of the Aswan High Dam in 1971 and the resultant Lake Nasser have altered the time-honored place of the Nile River in the agriculture and ecology of Egypt. A rapidly growing population (the largest in the Arab world), limited arable land, and dependence on the Nile all continue to overtax resources and stress society. The government has struggled to meet the demands of Egypt's growing population through economic reform and massive investment in communications and physical infrastructure.https://www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/"

Economic Development, Health, and Education

Health and Edu. Infant mortality rate: total: 27.26 deaths/1,000 live births Life expectancy: total population: 72.12 years Male : 69.56 years Female  : 74.81 years Literacy rate: total population: 71.4% male: 83% female: 59.4%

The Economic Development of Egypt Relies on agriculture, media, petroleum exports, and tourism; there are also more than three million Egyptians working abroad. These things keep Egypt a economically well of country, though its Nile based culture is becoming strained due to a growing population and the fast pace of this age. The Gross Domestic product of Egypt is $469.8 billion, broken down per capita is %6,000 .

Key industries of the country include: food processing, tourism, chemicals, pharmaceuticals, hydrocarbons, construction, cement, metals, and light manufactures. The Imports are machinery and equipment, foodstuffs, chemicals, wood products, and fuels. The Exports consist of:crude oil and petroleum products, cotton, textiles, metal products, chemicals, processed food .

Governance

The country of Egypt is a Republic based on three separate branches(Executive, Parliament, and the Judiciary). There are 454-member legislature also know as the People's Assembly, elected for a five year term, with 10 deputies appointed directly by the President. The People's Assembly nominates the President who is confirmed by popular referendum for a six-year renewable term. The Council of Ministers is appointed by the President.

The ruling law is The Constitution of the Arab Republic of Egypt which is based on three basic principals "Peace through Freedom, Arab Unity, National Development and Freedom." This was adopted September 11, 1971 and amended in 1980, 2005 and 2007. This is Egypts 4th constitution since the deceleration of the republic and is known as the "Permanent Constitution".

Egypts first constitution was instated in 1965 after the overthrow of King Farouk, a monarch.

Courts and Criminal Law

In Egypt the style of trial is Inquisitorial. The role of the judge is to make the decision of guilt or innocence. The President appoints all judges upon recommendation of the Higher Judicial Council, a constitutional body composed of senior judges and chaired by the president of the Court of Cassation. The judicial system is based on the Napoleonic tradition; hence, there are no juries. IN this style of law the role of the lawyer is more passive as in comparison with an adversarial trial. Another function of this style of trail is the presumption of innocents of the accused, the main point of this style of trail is an investigation to find truth.

Punishment

The total prison population in Egypt is 80,000 prisoners. In Egypt the criminal codes can be broken up into three main categories of crime: contraventions which are minor offenses such as lying to an officer, operating without a license ect. Then there are misdemeanors which are punishable by imprisonment or fines such as petty theft, simple assault and trespassing.Finally their are felonies or capital crimes these are the highest form of crime and are punishable by penal servitude or death these include murder, manslaughter occurring in the commission of a felony, arson or the use of explosives that caused death, rape, treason, and endangerment of state security. http://www.photius.com/countries/egypt/national_security/egypt_national_security_crime_and_punishment.html. Though Convictions for capital crimes occur few actually result in execution, in fact the average rate of execution in eygpt per year is about 5 people http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=39980. Though capital punishment is rarely used there are two styles of execution the first is hanging, which is used for civilians. The second is the firing squad, which is specifically used for soldiers.http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Egypt

"Prison conditions and conditions in detention centers remained poor. Prison cells remained overcrowded, with a lack of medical care, proper hygiene, food, clean water, and proper ventilation. Tuberculosis was widespread; sexual and other abuse, especially of juveniles in adult facilities, was common, and guards brutalized prisoners.http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119114.htm"

Law Enforcement

The type of legal system upheld in Egypt is Centralized Multiple and uncoordinated. The country's law enforcement is organized by the Ministry if the interior and broken down in to four branches on the national scale.

Crime Rates and Public Opinion

The Crime rates in Egypt are low but continue to grow. Common crimes in this country consist of drug trafficking (mainly of cannabis), money laundering, fraud, corruption, and black market crime. A big one of the crimes of the list previously mentioned is corruption, the corruption of government officials in Egypt has cost the country many thing one of which is an accurate report of the crime rate. Sources holding information on crime rates in Egypt are not very centralized and consist heavily of reports of terrorism and some drug trafficking from near countries.

Other key Crime	rates per	100,000 people
Homicide	Rapes	Theft
0.5	0.03	60.

Rights

Family Law

In the country of Egypt marriage is a contract concluded by mutually consenting parties of marriageable age, men being a minimum of 18 and women being the age of 16. Women cannot enter a marriage without the legal consent of a guardian such as her father or another elder male in the family. The brides father and the husband discuss the terms of the marriage including the (muqaddam)which is an advance portion of the dowry and a mu'akhar, the remaining portion of that dowry that is payed upon divorce or death. This process is very male oriented and for the most part the wife will make little to no decisions in the contract.http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11887/section/4

If a couple is divorced in Egypt it must be done by the man, if a women does try to divorce her husband she must choose between a protracted fault-based divorce that allows them to retain their financial rights (when the authorities are able to enforce alimony and child-support payments) or a divorce predicated on the abandonment of their rights (khul`).http://www.hrw.org/en/node/11887/section/4. If there are children involved in the divorce Sharia law primarily favors the mother when the child is under the age of 15."If the mother loses her presumptive custody the courts recognize an order of preference of alternate adult custodians with priority given to the mother’s family in the following order: maternal grandmother or great-grandmother; paternal grandmother or great-grandmother; maternal aunt; paternal aunt; maternal niece; paternal niece. Only if these relatives do not exist, will the right of custody shift to a male"http://www.international-divorce.com/egypt_child_abduction.htm. As far as visitation goes it depends on the willingness of the custodial parent.

Social Inequality

===Human Rights Human rights in Egypt has been a problem since 1967, since then the government has been in an almost continued state of emergency not allowing the citizens to change the system. In the section of human rights Egypt has had all around low rankings according to freedom house;the Political rights were at 6, civil liberties at 5, and an average of 5.5,Religious Freedom placed Egypt as partly free at 5, and the lowest ranking was economic freedom placed Egypt at a 1.65http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_rights_in_Egypt.

"The government's respect for freedoms of press, association, and religion declined during the year, and the government continued to restrict other civil liberties, particularly freedom of speech, including Internet freedom, and freedom of assembly, including restrictions on nongovernmental organizations.http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2008/nea/119114.htm"