The General Directorate of Legislative Affairs and Academic- Legal Research Institute

The general directorate of legislative affairs and academic-legal researches institute which is called as the general directorate of legislation  as well, is one of the professional, essential and key part of the ministry of justice of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan in scrutinizing, drafting and processing  of legislative documents affairs and providing consultations to the Emirate administrations and ministries.

Historical background

As the history of general directorate of legislative affairs and academic-legal researches institute shows, from the beginning of the legislation consultancy until now, this institute has operated under different titles as presented below:

1. Before the 1335 S.Y legislation consultancy was established in organizational structure of the supreme chancellery to edit certificates and other relevant documents and then it was named the legislation management.
2. In 1335 S.Y the legislation management was separated from the supreme chancellery and was integrated to the ministry of justice under the title of the general legislation management.
3. In 1343 S.Y the law on Juristic Opinion (Fatwa) and legislation administration was approved and according to that law, the directorate of Fatwa and legislation was established in the ministry of justice for the scrutinizing and drafting of procedure codes projects and regulations and to defend the project laws in national assembly, providing legal consultations to the government, ministries and their offices and public associations and organizing the documents and legal instruments between countries.
4. On 1360 S.Y the statute of legislative affairs and academic-legal researches institute was enforced and according to which the legislative affairs and academic-legal researches institute must operate to draft and scrutinize the project laws, decrees, statute and regulations, scrutinizing the projects amongst the countries and presenting their opinions on them.
5. In 1420 A.H the statute of  the general directorate of the legislative affairs and academic-legal researches was enforced and according to it the general directorate of the legislative affairs and academic-legal researches operate to draft and scrutinize the legal drafts, decrees, regulations and statutes and providing the legal consultations to the Emirate ministries and administrations, and scrutinizing the treaties between the countries and commenting on them about  their compliance with the law of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
6. In 1386 S.Y the statute of legislation affairs and academic-legal researches institute, approved and legislation affairs and academic-legal institute operate the scrutinizes and drafts legal drafts, legislative decrees, regulations and statutes, providing legal consultations to governmental ministries and administrations, international treaties scrutinizes and commenting about their compliance with the binding laws of the  country, based  on it.

Organizational structure of Directorate of Legislation

The legislation affairs institute and an academic-researches institute is consisted of:

1. The general directorate.
2. The deputyship of general directorate.
3. Department of civil laws;
4. Department of criminal laws;
5. Department of financial and economic laws;
6. Department of educational, cultural and health laws;
7. Department of labor and administration laws;
8. Department of commercial and private sector laws;
9. Department of international and human rights laws;
10. Department of studying, explicating and instructing laws;
11. Department of legislative documents translation and notarizing the official translated documents;
12. Sub-directorate of liaison and documentations.

Objectives:

The legislation affairs and academic-legal researches institute operate to accomplish the following objectives:    

1. Extending and revolving the country’s legal system through scrutinizing and drafting the legislative documents in accordance with the Islamic Sharia rules, legislative documents and the principles of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
2. Academic-legal researches in legislation field.
3. Improving the knowledge level of professional affairs employees of Emirate ministries and administrations through describing and explaining legislative documents.
4. Upgrading the skills of legislative affairs and academic-legal researches institute in the field of legislative documents.

Duties:

The legislative affairs and academic-legal research institute carry out the following tasks:

1. Preparing and drafting the legislative documents.
2. Scrutinizing the initial draft of legislative documents by the observance of the Islamic Sharia decrees and binding laws.
3. Commenting on the treaties and international (conventions) covenant drafts by observing the Islamic sharia decrees and enforced legislative documents.
4. Expressing legal comments about the essential issues to cabinet of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan.
5. Providing legal consultations to emirate ministries and administrations upon necessity.
6. Performing academic-legal researches in the field of legislation.
7. Paving the ground for extending the academic-legal researches in the field of legislation.
8. Conducting the common meetings amongst the ministries representatives and relevant administrations to create coordination.
9. Providing the liaison with the emirate ministries and administrations to know and implement the laws in right manner.
10. Studying the foreign countries’ laws and use them for the improvement and revolution of the legal system of the country.
11. Paving the ground for rising up the skill level of professional members in legislative affairs.
12. Translating the laws of other countries in official languages of the country to use them in legislative affairs while needed.