The Validity of the Theory of Constitutional Oversight in Saudi Arabia Compared to US Law - Research Proposal Example

How valid is a theory of Constitutional Oversight in Islam and its applications in Saudi Arabia? (Compared to united s law) CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction Religion, politics and states have been traced out as interrelated since the dawn of civilization.They not only complement each other, but also provide the two most important factors that are highly responsible in the establishment of a state namely religion that directs the private lives of the citizens and the politics (Law) which monitors their public behaviors. They work together to lay down codes of behavior codify them lawfully, and implement them as edicts to promote cooperative peaceful activity and to generate homogenous group recognition. An Islamic state is a type of government, in which the primary basis for government is Islamic religious law that caters to the above-mentioned philosophy and believes that if the religion itself provides these two directions to its followers together, it will create a flawless and strongest state in the world. Evidently, Medina was the place in which the first Islamic state was developed. This occurred in 622 CE following the migration of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). Incidentally, he was the Muslims political leader for a period of ten years in which he implemented all aspects of Islam. Just like any other state, having a constitution is a vital element that Islamic states cannot afford to miss out be it in written or unwritten form. A country’s constitution stipulates the roles of the citizens, their rights and freedoms as well as the mode of governance that they should have.Sources of the Islamic constitution include Quran, Sunnah, Consensus as well as the jurisprudence of scholars (Ijtihad). 1.2 Scope of the study This research study will investigate the validity of the theory of constitutional oversight in Islam and its application in Saudi Arabia compared to United States law. 1.3 Research Objectives The aim of this research proposal is to meet the following research objectives: 1. To establish the techniques used by the Saudi Arabia government to oversight its operations. 2. To ascertain the effectiveness of the oversight techniques used by the Saudi Arabia government. 3. To determine the differences and similarities of the Saudi Arabia government oversight techniques compared to USA. 1.4 Research questions 1. What are the techniques used by the Saudi Arabia government to oversight its operations?  2. How effective are the oversight techniques used by the Saudi Arabia government? 3. What are the differences and similarities of the Saudi Arabia government oversight techniques compared to USA? CHAPTER TWO: LITERATURE REVIEW 2.0 Literature Review The theory of constitutional oversight in Islam as well as its application in the Muslim or Islamic states has not been discussed in an intensive way in popular presses and research studies. Oversight has a wide range of definitions though the most widely acceptable definition is that an oversight is a constitutionally mandated function of legislative organs of state to scrutinize and oversee executiveaction and any organ of state. Moreover, oversight involves overseeing the effective management of government departments by individual Cabinet members in pursuit for improved delivery of service to all citizens.1 There are two oversight techniques that are widely used in most states which include political and judicial oversight. Political oversight involves giving parliament (or law makes who in most cases are politicians) power to conduct oversight of all organs of state, including those at provincial and local government level through parliamentary committees. These committees visit state organs for fact-finding or request a briefing from its administrators. Judicial oversight on the other hand involves overseeing the operations of state agencies or organs through independent judicial committees or commissioners. In both cases, the concept of oversight contains many aspects, which include political, administrative, financial, ethical, legal and strategic elements. Sources show that the key roles of an oversight in all aspects be it underShari’ah law the other ordinary laws include detecting and preventing abuse, arbitrary behavior orillegal and unconstitutional conduct on the part of the government and public agencies. The primary goal of this objective of oversight bodies is to protect rights as well as liberties of the citizens. Other functions include making the government accountable on how the taxpayers’ money is used and ensuring that policies announced by government and authorized by Parliament are actually delivered.2 Saudi Arabia has no formal constitution. The functions of a constitution are served by ‘The Basic Law of Governance’ which determinesQuran and Sunnah the ultimate sources of the Saudi state.Article 6 of the Law states “government in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia derives its authority from the Book of God and the Sunna of the Prophet (PBUH), which are the ultimate sources of reference for this Law and the other laws of the State.”Interpretation of the Quran and Sunnah remains necessary, and this executes by the ulema, the Saudi religious establishment. Being a monarchical state, the king of Saudi Arabia shall be the final authority.The king is the President of the Council of Ministers who steers the general policies of the State. He has the full power to supervise over the Cabinet, Ministries and all Government Agencies.3He is also advised by Consultative Council (Majlis Al-Shura) which is a legislative body that proposes new laws and amends existing ones.4 The judiciaryof Saudi Arabia is held to be independent under the Basic Law, and that there shall be no power over judges in their judicial function other than the power of the Islamic Shari’ah. Unlike other democratic countries like USA among others, Saudi Arabia does not have defined oversight techniques be it political or judicial systems or committees.Moreover, oversight techniques are not defined by the Basic Law of Governance. However, Saudi Arabia judicial oversight is delegated to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court system. The judiciary also has legitimacy of rules and regulations oversight.In addition, part of political oversight in Saudi Arabia authorizes toAllegiance Commission by ‘Law of pledge of Allegiance Commission’ which was established in 2006. Under this law a committee of senior princes would be appointed to select future generations of kings and crown princes. Saudi Arabia has a completely different system compared to USA. Constitutional oversight in the USA is done by the Congress (political oversight), or what is commonly referred to as Congressional oversight. Congressional oversightisthe checking,review and supervision of all US federal agencies activities, as well as policy implementation by the US Congress through congressional activities such as authorization, investigative, legislative hearing, and appropriations by standing committees; specialized investigations by select committees; and reviews and studies by congressional support agencies and staff.Congress exercises this power largely through its congressional committee system even though oversight also occurs in various congressional activities and contexts.5Judicial review under the American constitution is mentionedin Article 3 and 4 in which it is vested in the Supreme Court as well as other inferior courts that may periodically be established by the Congress. According to the literature review conducted by the researcher in this research proposal, it is evident that there is very little study that that has been conducted with regard to the validity of the theory of constitutional oversight in Islam and its application in not only Saudi Arabia, but also in other Islamic and monarchical states. This means that there exists a huge research gap that can only be filled by conducting a more specific research on this topic. The proposed research study will focus on Saudi Arabia as an Islamic state with the main objectives being to establish the techniques or systems that the country uses to oversight government operations. The researcher will also deeply explore the Saudi Arabia as a country and draw close comparison between it and other democratic states like the USA. CHAPTER THREE: METHODOLOGY 3.1 Introduction This chapter outlines how the research will be conducted. It will outline the research design that the researcher will use, method of data collection as well as the method that will be used later in analyzing the obtained data. 3.2 Research Design The proposed research study will be conducted by reviewing specialized texts that discuss the research topic and other related texts. Moreover, it will entail personalized interviews with scholars knowledgeable on Islamic law.The selected number of countries is two, namely Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United States of America (USA) whereby Saudi Arabia is an Islamic state that is dominated by Muslims and it is a type of a monarchical state while USA is a democratic state dominated by Christians.Using a hybrid of these two research methods will ensure that the collected data is well detailed, reliable, and quantifiable so that a general conclusion can be drawn from the research. Application of these methods will also give the researcher an opportunity to interact with the respondents thus able to verify the obtained data in an easy way. However, the main disadvantage of these methodologies is the fact that collecting and analyzing data is likely to be time consuming and tiresome. 3.3 Data collection Primaryand secondary method of data collection The researcher will collect information concerning the validity of the constitutional oversight in Islam and its applications in Saudi Arabia, and make a close comparison between the Saudi Arabia and US. This data will be collected from primaryand secondary sources such as the two countries constitutions, books,internet materials like the government websites, journals, articles past carried out studies and any other credible publication that might be containing information relating to this topic. Since sources of the Islamic constitution are multiple, the researcher will consider what these religious sources suggest about states and governance. In this case, the proposed study will be conducted by a person who has an in-depth understanding of Islamic doctrines because he is a Muslim and have studied Islam for long time. However, there might be need to make consultations from Muslim leaders, tutors and Imams among others for further clarification thus calling for the need of applying personal interview data collection instrument. The researcher will ensure that the collected data is from reliable and credible sources so that the made conclusion can be generalized and used for future reference or can be cited on matters relating to this topic. Personal Interview The researcher will also make personal interviews, phone call interviews or /and video calls interviews using Skype or other electronic means. The researcher will interview the relevant key players such as law experts, Muslim leaders, tutors, Imams, professors of political science, senior government officials and democracy activists among others experts who are knowledgeable about constitutions and politics of the two countries. The main advantage of this method is that the researcher will be able to get reliable information since direct interactions give room for verifying the credibility of the respondent. As the process of data collection goes on, the researcher will write up notes describing what he has observed and recording the insights he gains, including variables and possible hypotheses that will be discovered as the researcher reflect on his observations. The researcher will make concise and clear literature documentation for further analysis and study. Back home, while doing the additionalreading and writing up notes on the visit and interviews made, the researcher will correspond further by e-mail with contacts in the two countries to fill in gaps or clarify things he may have misunderstood. Lastly, the researcher will write comparing the two countries according to the information gathered whereby the text of writing will be embellished using interesting quotations from informants and descriptions of conditions and events that the researcher observed. Appendix: Table of Contents Introduction Preliminary Chapter: Introduction to the Islamic system. Section One: What is the Islamic state? Definition of the Islamic State. The origin of the Islamic state and its development (historical overview). SectionTwo: Constitution in an Islamic Political System. Definition of constitution in Islam. The presence of the constitution in anIslamic political system. The importance of the constitution in Islam. Section Three: Sources of the Islamic constitution: 1. Quran. 2. Sunnah. 3. Consensus. 4. The jurisprudence of scholars (Ijtihad). Chapter One: Constitutional Oversight: concept, fundamentals, and methods. Section One: The legal meaning of oversight. Section Two: The legislative basis of oversight. Section Three: Methods of oversight: First: Political oversight. The origin of political oversight. Methods of political oversight. Second: Judicial oversight. The origin of judicial oversight. Methods of judicial oversight. Chapter Two: Constitutional Oversight in Islam and its Applications in Saudi Arabia. Section one: The meaning of constitutional oversight in Shari’ah law: First: Concept. Source of legislation protection: Quran and Sunnah. Second: Methods. Political oversight. Judicial oversight: unconstitutionality and judicial review. Third: Checks. Forth: Historical models of constitutional oversight in Islam. Section Two: Applications of constitutional oversight in Saudi Arabia. First: The presence of constitutional oversight in Saudi Arabia. Does Saudi legal system mention to that? Second:Government Agencies that do constitutional oversight. Council of Ministers: supervise over the Cabinet, Ministries and all Government Agencies. Consultative Council (Majlis Al-Shura): legislative body that proposes new laws and amends existing ones. Saudi religious establishment and its terms of reference. Supreme Judicial Council and its terms of reference. Judicial oversight: Supreme Court and its terms of reference. Legitimacy of rules and regulations oversight. Chapter Three: Constitutional Oversight in the United State. Section One: Methods of American Constitutional oversight: First: Judicial review. The authority of judicial review. Judicial review between the adoption of the Constitution and Marbury. Marbury v. Madison case. Judicial review after Marbury. Laws limiting judicial review. Modes of judicial review. Second: Congressional oversight. Congress’s oversight authority: it derives from its implied powers in the Constitution. Congressional activities and contexts: authorization, appropriations, investigative, and legislative hearings. Congresss oversight function, takes many forms: committee inquiries and hearings, formal consultations with and reports from the president, senate advice and consent for presidential nominations and for treaties… Section Two:Comparison of constitutional oversight in Saudi Arabia and the United States. First:The differences between constitutional oversight in Saudi Arabia and the United States. Second:The similaritiesbetween constitutional oversight in Saudi Arabia and the United States. Conclusion Read More