Courts and judiciary of Somaliland

How are Somaliland's courts organised?

The Constitution of Somaliland sets up five levels of courts (Constitution of the Republic of Somaliland, via Refworld):

1. The Supreme Court, the highest court.
2. The Appeal Courts of the Regions.
3. The Regional Courts.
4. The District Courts.
5. The Courts of the National Armed Forces, which hear criminal cases against members of the armed forces in peace or war.

The regional, appeal and district courts handle all civil and criminal cases. They are overseen by the Judicial Commission, also called the High Judicial Council (same source; Horizon Institute, Functional Review of the High Judicial Council). The judiciary also includes the Attorney General and his deputies (Wikipedia, Judiciary of Somaliland).

What does the Supreme Court do?

The Supreme Court has a Chief Justice and at least four other judges (Constitution, via Refworld). It has three roles (Somalilandlaw.com, Somaliland Supreme Court):

• Final court of appeal for all criminal and civil cases. In this role it also rules on disputes over the validity of national elections.
• Constitutional court: it interprets the constitution and can strike down a law that breaks it.
• High Court of Justice: in impeachment cases against ministers, five Supreme Court judges sit with four members chosen by parliament, two from each house. Impeachment of the President or Vice-President is handled by parliament, with the Chief Justice presiding (Constitution, via Refworld).

Chief Justice: Adan Haji Ali, in office since 3 June 2015. He was appointed by President Ahmed Mohamed Mohamoud "Silanyo" (Wikipedia, Adan Haji Ali; Somtribune, 30 Aug 2016). The Chief Justice is appointed by the President. The court swears in new officials, such as ministers and members of parliament (Somaliland Standard), and has sat in the regions, including Awdal and Gabiley (Somaliland Standard).

Which laws do the courts apply?

The constitution makes Islamic Sharia the basis of the legal system (Constitution, via Refworld). There are no separate Sharia courts; the state courts apply it (DW, 2016).

In practice judges draw on three traditions, as described by a UN report and a 2019 access-to-justice study (United Nations, Reforming Somaliland's Judiciary; Knowledge Platform Security and Rule of Law, 2019):

• Sharia, especially in family and inheritance cases;
• statute law, including laws from the British era and Somali laws from before 1969; and
• xeer, the customary law applied by clan elders. See Xeer customary law.

How did the legal system develop?

From the Academy for Peace and Development's study of the judiciary (APD, The Judicial System in Somaliland, 2014):

• Before colonial rule: elders applied xeer, and Islamic scholars applied Sharia.
• British rule from 1884: Britain brought a common-law system modelled on the one it used in India.
• 1960 to 1991: after union with the south, there was no separate northern legal system, though lower courts in the north still used British-era law until 1977.
• 1991 onward: after Somaliland's 1991 declaration, the Borama conference charter of 1993 set up a judiciary using pre-1969 laws. The 1997 interim constitution and the 2001 constitution confirmed the current structure (Wikipedia).

Related pages

• Somaliland institutions
• Somaliland citizenship law
• Somalia's courts and judiciary