political system
legal system
the court system
POLITICAL SYSTEM
Maldives has had a written Constitution since 1932. According to the most recent amendment in 1997, Maldives is described as a unitary state with a democratic and republican form of government. The powers of the state are vested in the citizens and are divided, for purposes of governance, into the Executive, the Legislature and the Judiciary.
Maldives has a unicameral legislature called the People’s Majlis. The Majlis comprises of 50 members. 42 of them are directly elected by the people and 8 appointed by the President to represent the State. Maldives does not follow the system of proportional representation, and the number of representatives from each constituency is limited to 2. Therefore, 2 are elected from each of the 20 administrative atolls and from the capital island of Male’.
The Head of State and Head of Government is the President, elected every 5 years by public referendum. The country has no Prime Minister and the government of the day is not made or unmade on the floor of the House. There are no political parties, and the Parliament functions independent of the government.
Cabinet Ministers are held accountable before the Parliement and may be questioned by its members, and a motion of no-confidence may be passed by the Majlis causing mandatory resignation of the minister concerned. Other main Parliement mandates include impeachment of the President and passing the state budget. The Majlis cannot be dissolved under any circumstance and continues without interruption.
The Parliament has the legislative competence in all matters except those relating to the Constitution. Constitutional matters are dealt with by the People’s Special Majlis, which is a much larger assembly comprising of the members of the Peoples Majlis as it is, the Council of Ministers, and members directly appointed and elected to it in the same manner as to the People’s Majlis.
Although the Maldives is a state based upon the basic tenets of Islam, Maldives does not follow a strict Islamic law code or Sharia’h law in the administration of justice. Law is defined in the Constitution to include Acts passed by the Parliament and assented to by the President and regulations made under such laws and the practices of the government, and the norms and provisions of Sharia’h.
Due to the fact that Maldivians suffered little foreign rule or occupation, Maldives has not had the opportunity to benefit from a judicial and legal system, as most Commonwealth countries do. Therefore, the laws of the Maldives, as passed by the People’s Majlis have continued to reflect a home-grown and indigenous flavour.
Due to the country’s active and growing economic and trade sector, and the enormous amount of foreign interactions and investment in the country, the legal system has now met the challenge of meeting new and more sophisticated legal rules and frameworks that could meet the vibrancy of the sector. Most of these laws are based upon English Common Law principles.
For this reason too, it will be a misnomer to say that Sharia’h is the legal system of Maldives. The fact of the matter is, majority of the laws do not necessarily contain Sharia’h rules or provisions. However, before a law is passed, it is ascertained if a law is offensive to a major tenet of Islam.
However Sharia’h law has continued to be applied in areas of marriage, divorce, other personal and inheritance matters and limited criminal offences, while, the rest of the legal and judicial spectrum is seen to apply laws as passed by the Parliament in the earlier mentioned manner. The affinity of commercial laws to English Law has lent the confidence and trust of the foreign investors to the Maldivian legal and commercial system and boosted their morale to continue to explore investment opportunities inthe Maldives for mutual benefit.
The judiciary is organized in the form of lower courts, comprising of the four lower courts in Male’, the magistrates courts in the islands, and the High Court of the Maldives having its seat in Male’. The Head of State is the fountain of justice in the Maldives. Thus, judicial authority is vested in the courts and the President.
The four lower courts in Male’ are the Civil, Criminal, Juvenile and Family Courts headed by Chief Judges, and are courts of first instance. They have unlimited jurisdiction both in respect of territory and amount of money or punishment involved, to hear claims coming under their competence.
Magistrates courts, headed by magistrates in the outer islands are the equivalent of the lower courts in Male’. They hear cases of first instance but have limited jurisdiction. The cases outside their jurisdiction have to be referred to the lower courts in Male’.
The High Court of the Maldives is headed by the Chief Justice of the Maldives. While it functions mainly as an appellate court, the President may refer to it, proceedings instituted by the State to be heard in the first instance by the High Court. Appeal from lower court decisions lie to the High Court and it has powers to affirm or overturn the decisions of the lower courts.
The quasi- equivalent to the apex
court in the Maldives is the President. As the President is the highest
authority of administering justice in the Maldives, a petition may be
filed to the President from a decision of the High Court and the President
may overrule, or affirm the decision of the High Court or order a retrial
of the matter. The decision of the President is the final ruling on the
matter. In judicial matters, the President is advised by an elite
judicial council comprising of legal and judicial experts in the country.
©
2003
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