Palestinian Legal Environment

Challenges & Opportunities for eGovernment

Initiatives

Jamil Salem

Institute of Law, Birzeit University

j.salem@birzeit.edu

I. Evolution of the Palestinian Legal System

II. Establishment of the Palestinian Authority

III. The Legislative Process and the State of Exception

IV. State of Emergency

V. E-Government

VI. E-Government – Legal Framework

VII. Policy Cycle & Tools

VIII. Al-Muqtafi (Experience of the Institute of Law-Legal Informatics)

The Palestinian Legal System is often characterizedas complex since it consists of different layers ofcolonial codes and rules:

Ottoman Rule (1516 – 1917)

British Mandate (1918 - 1948)

Egyptian Rule over the Gaza Strip (1948 – 1967)

Jordanian Rule in the West Bank and East Jerusalem(1948 – 1967)

Israeli Occupation (1967- ??)

Palestinian Authority (PA) (1994 - !)

II. Inception of the PA (1994 – )(Oslo Accords)

Limited Territorial, Functional and Personal Jurisdiction

Occupied Palestinian Territory divided into:

a. Area A: Major Cities (Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, etc) (ca. 18%)

Under Control of the PA

b. Area B includes villages and refugee camps (ca. 24%)

Mixed Jurisdiction (PA: civil matters, Israel: security).

c. Area C includes the rest of the West Bank (ca. 58%)

Under sole Israeli Jurisdiction

o Interim Period should have ended in the year 1999.

o The Last Colonial Question still unresolved after 43 years of occupation!

Draft Laws may be proposed by the Government orat least a member of the Palestinian LegislativeCouncil

Different Committees at PLC General Debate

First, Second and Third Readings

Promulgation and Publication

Legislation enter into force after 30 days ofpublication in the Palestinian Official Gazette

Electronic Publication: Al-Muqtafi at the Institute ofLaw, Birzeit University in cooperation with the PNA.

Second Legislative Elections in 2006 and political divsion between Fatah and Hamas

PLC paralyzed, since most of its members are in Israeli prisons.

President declared state of emergency and started issuing legislation based on Article 43 of the Palestinain Basic Law.

Article 43 of the Palestinian Basic Law

The President of the National Authority shall have the right, in cases of necessity that cannot be delayed, and when the Legislative Council is not in session, to issue decrees that have the power of law.

These decrees shall be presented to the Legislative Council in the first session convened after their issuance; otherwise they will cease to have the power of law.

If these decrees are presented to the Legislative Council, as mentioned above, but are not approved by the latter, then they shall cease to have the power of law.

E-Government can be classified into the following areas:

Information: Making information available online, for example, on the Web site of a public authority.

Communication: The ability to interactively access and exchange information.

Transaction: The actual carrying out of services, including the signation of application forms and electronic delivery of official documents and notifications.

e-Government is an infrastructure that enables electronic services between Government-Government, Government-Business, and Government-Citizen.

Freedom of choice for users in selecting the means of communication when contacting with public authorities;

Security and improved legal protection provided by appropriate technical measures such as a unique e-card

To reduce the cost & complexity of the administrative procedures

Servers interoperate among each other and exchange data messages.

Exchanging data messages is like exchanging documents, but in a digital world.

To enable this e-interoperation we need:

- National Policies

- Legal Framework

- Interoperability Framework

- Security Framework

- Infrastructure

The legal scope of e-Government is notconfined to a single law or regulation

PNA Other NecessaryLegislation

E-Transaction and Digital Signature Law

Administrative Procedural Law

Information Systems Law Intellectual Property & Copyright

Privacy & Data protectionLaw

E-Crimes

(…) E-Procurement, E-Notary, E-Elections, E-

Taxation, (…)

The law shall regulate the powers, procedures, and acts of public administration. It applies to all public officials and public agencies. (G – G)

The law shall lay down the basic principles of administrative procedures.

The Act shall regulate the ways with which public authorities and citizens can communicate with each other, such as the transmission of applications by eMail or Web forms. (G – C)

Act is not available in Palestine.

How can we authenticate people in the digital world?

- Everyone has a unique public key related to him/her.

The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law(UNCITRAL) develops "model laws" or templates upon whichgovernments can develop their own particular legislation.

UNCITRAL's Uniform Rules on Electronic Signaturescharacterize qualified signature technologies in terms of theirability to ensure integrity of content as well as identity oforigin.

A qualified signature is equal to that of a handwrittensignature.

Different jurisdictions use citizen cards as an electronic identification for the internet.

Palestinian Case: ID Cards (each person has a unique ID number!)

The citizen card contains a qualified electronic signature that makes it possible to sign forms or contracts which normally require a personal handwritten signature.

Public Key Infrastructure is needed in order to allow people use Digital Signatures

PKI is a set of hardware, software, policies and procedures needed to create, manage and distribute, store and revoke digital certificates.

In addition a Certification Authority is required to give people public and private keys

An Act is needed to regulate the mentioned elements.

To regulate the creation and processing of state databases.

Can a ministry decide to collect any data?

Can a ministry decide to process the data for any purpose?

Can a ministry give the data to other ministries?

Can a ministry decide not to give data to other ministries.

Should ministries follow standards/classifications/codes/nameswhen they register data (like names of cities, countries, medicaltests, car brands, etc.)

Should ministries follow standard security measures to protect data.

…..etc.

To regulate the creation and processing of state databases.

We need to regulate the ownership and processing of statedatabases.

What legal act is needed to describe the functions of databases(statute, approved by Government?).

For e-government, we need a “database of databases”.

Each ministry should provide metadata about their databases?

This database of databases needs to be owned by somebody

This body need to audit whether ministries implement this act?

To regulate the processing of data and for what purposes. ◦ Can one obtain/store my data for an unclear purpose?

◦ Can you process my data for other purposes than we agreed?

◦ Can one keep my outdated data?

◦ Can one keep my data longer than the necessity period, of theagreed purpose?

◦ What measures one should take for accidental loss or destructionof, or damage to personal data?

◦ Can one transfer my data for another party (or outside the country)without my permission? and without ensuring that this party followsan adequate level of data protection?

◦ What personal data is sensitive/private and what extra measuresare needed to protect this data.

We need a body to audit organization’s informationsystems.

E-Transactions &

Digital Signature

Act

Information

Systems

ActPrivacy &

Data Protection

Act

Draft DONE-

Being Revised

By a committee

of IT and law

experts

Policy

Formulation

Policy

Delivery /

Implementation

Policy Review /

Assessment

1. Ex-Ante

Evaluation /

Impact Assessment

General and

Legislative Policy

2. Consultation

Communication

& Drafting

4. Ex-Post

Evaluation

3. Interim

Evaluation

Developed and maintained at the Institute of Law, Birzeit University.

Content:

◦ All Legislation since the Ottoman period

◦ Consolidation of all valid legislation

◦ Court Judgments (since 1994)

◦ More than 2000 Legal Principles and 200 scholarly comments on court judgments.

◦ International Documents about Palestine

◦ Legal Dictionary (A/E)

◦ Legal Thesaurus (A/E)

◦ Legal Ontology (Labour Law): used for integration and semantic interoperability between the legislation and court judgments databases.

Legislative Harmony in the Legal System

Consistency in using Vocabularies and Concepts

Semantics Integration and Interoperation of Legal Information Systems

Semantic Search

Better Understanding of Domain

Thank You for Your Attention

Jamil Salem

Institute of Law, Birzeit University

P.O. Box 14, Birzeit, Palestine

j.salem@birzeit.edu