The Palestinian constitutional court: a critical assessment of its independence under the emergency regime of the West Bank

Abstract

This thesis assesses the de jure and de facto independence of the Palestinian Constitutional Court since the coup in July 2007 that brought the Fatah regime to power in the West Bank. It argues that the Court has failed to perform its fundamental function, namely upholding the Basic Law in the face of authoritarian actions by that regime, and that it is highly unlikely to resolve this problem while the state of emergency continues. This thesis offers a case study on how constitutional courts in authoritarian regimes fail to fulfil, and even obstruct, the promises of rights protections contained in constitutional texts.