Algeria

The People’s Democratic Republic of Algeria achieved its independence in 1962, after more than a century of French rule, and is a semi-presidential republic, whose legal system is a mixture of French civil law and Islamic law. The government is divided into Executive, Legislative and Judicial Branches. The President, elected by direct and popular vote, every five years, serves as both the Chief Executive and the Commander in Chief. The President appoints the Prime Minister, who serves as the head of the Government. The previous constitution was enacted in 1963 and has been amended on a number of occasions. In May 2014, following President Abdelazziz Bouteflika’s re-election, the Government released a constitutional reform package.

Algeria’s current Constitution was adopted in 2020, within which they provide for a preamble that consider climate change. The judicial power of Algeria is divided into independent courts. At the top of the judicial hierarchy are the Constitutional Court —which ensures the Constitution’s observance— and the Supreme Court. Article 201 establishes that the Constitutional Court can hear from cases referred to by the President of the Republic, the President of the Council of the Nation, the President of the People’s National Assembly, the Head of the Government, forty deputies or twenty-five members of the Council of the Nation. The Court may issue opinions regarding the constitutional observance of laws, treaties, decrees and regulations, as well as when constitutional powers conflict. The Supreme Court, on the other hand, ensures the standardization of jurisprudence across the country and shall oversee the adherence to the law and, when one of the parties in a trial claims before its jurisdiction that the legislative or regulatory provision upon which the issue of litigation relies may adversely affect the rights and freedoms granted by the Constitution, it may refer the case to the Constitutional Court.