Alnoor Journal for Legal Studies

This study examines criminal justice through the principle of the presumption of innocence as a cornerstone for achieving justice in modern legal systems, given its essential role in safeguarding individual rights and freedoms and preventing the abuse of penal authority. The research highlights the concept of innocence, its legal foundations, and its legal nature in light of various jurisprudential approaches, while clarifying the manifestations of justice that this principle embodies throughout the stages of criminal proceedings. It further emphasizes the impact of the presumption of innocence in establishing fair trial guarantees, particularly the burden of proof, the interpretation of doubt in favor of the accused, humane treatment, and the right to defense. The study concludes that respect for the presumption of innocence constitutes a genuine criterion for the fairness of the criminal justice system and the rule of law.

This article advances an attribution-based account of employer (master) liability for employees’ torts, offering a doctrinal alternative to the prevailing Arab characterization—reflected in the Saudi Civil Transactions Law—that locates the doctrine within “liability for the acts of others” and consequently treats the employer as a statutory guarantor in terms akin to legal suretyship. The study begins by situating the debate within contemporary judicial developments, particularly in French law, where case-law has effectively moved toward recognizing the employer’s liability as primary by shielding the employee from both the victim’s direct action and the employer’s recourse claim, a trajectory commonly justified through enterprise-risk rationales. While attractive in policy terms, enterprise liability is argued to rest on political-economic considerations that sit uneasily with the internal discipline of legal concepts. Against that backdrop, the article develops the English notion of attribution (Attribution) as a more juristically coherent foundation: where the employee’s wrongdoing occurs in the course of, or by reason of, employment, the act is attributed to the employer as if committed by the employer personally. On this account, the employer is treated as a primary obligor alongside the employee, allowing the Saudi framework to be re-read through the general rules on plurality of tortfeasors and joint and several liability—most notably Article (127)—thereby recalibrating the victim’s position, the employer’s recourse, and the metric for internal allocation of the compensation.

The legislation enshrines a fundamental principle of criminal responsibility and criminal law, namely free will or the freedom of a person to choose the path of crime. It goes without saying that every person acts according to his or her own free will, provided that he or she is of sound mind and discernment and has no grounds for criminal irresponsibility. In this article, the author attempts to highlight the jurisprudential and legislative foundation of free will as a basis for criminal liability, before examining the fact that the system of criminal liability is based on free will and the extent to which it is possible to maintain this system in its current form.

This study aims to analyze the issue of the federal capital within the federal system from two interconnected perspectives: the size of parliamentary representation at the national and local levels and the extent to which it has local powers that enable it to manage its own affairs. Baghdad, the capital city, presents a problematic case because there is no specific law for the capital, despite the clear requirement stated in the 2005 Iraqi Constitution to enact one to regulate its authority. In addition, it has dual status of a federal capital and a governorate not organized in a region, which has created a gap between its parliamentary influence and its limited powers. To clarify the scope of this issue and propose practical solutions, this study compares Baghdad with three international models: Washington, D.C., which has an elected local government but limited national representation, Kuala Lumpur, which exemplifies complete centralization with considerable national representation but no elected local government, and Berlin, a region with representative governance and broad local powers. The study indicates that the Malaysia’s approach to organizing its capital is relatively effective for structuring Baghdad’s capital. Consequently, the study recommends amending Article 124 of the Iraqi Constitution of 2005 to grant Baghdad special federal status within its administrative boundaries, as initially outlined in the 2005 Constitution, under the direct oversight of the federal government while ensuring full parliamentary representation for its residents.

The renewed real estate registration system is a legal framework that addresses the status of properties not registered in the records of the Real Estate Registration Department, both actual and constructive, with the aim of eliminating the phenomenon of unregistered individual properties in previously registered real estate areas, through a committee called the Property Registration Committee. This system is very close to the concepts and systems contained in the Iraqi Civil Code and the Iraqi Real Estate Registration Law. Therefore, it is necessary to explain the similarities and differences between the renewed real estate registration and the concepts and systems mentioned above.

When a lawsuit is properly filed in court, a dispute is established between the parties for the purpose of applying the law. Undoubtedly, this dispute involves procedures imposed by law, which make it a legal act, regardless of whether the claimed right exists or not. Whether the intended purpose of the lawsuit is achieved through acceptance or rejection, the dispute nevertheless remains valid as a legal act. the legal acts constituting the existing dispute are primarily procedural acts. While formality is the characteristic that distinguishes civil procedure law from other branches of substantive law, the law mandates that these acts be clear and unambiguous to prevent the jeopardizing of rights due to their violation and the resulting serious damages that are often difficult to redress.

This study addressed the issue of protecting the rights of minority shareholders in Iraqi public joint-stock companies. It aimed to assess the adequacy of the legal framework in achieving a balance between the broad powers granted to the board of directors and the rights of minority shareholders. The study reached a central conclusion that the traditional Companies Law entrenches a structural imbalance in favor of the majority, whereas the corporate governance rules derived from the Securities Law have introduced a qualitative shift by imposing transparency and accountability. However, these rules remain insufficient due to the absence of decisive enforcement mechanisms. Accordingly, the study presented a key recommendation calling for legislative intervention to amend the Companies Law and explicitly provide for a “derivative action” system, thereby granting minority shareholders an effective judicial tool to hold negligent management accountable on behalf of and for the benefit of the company, as well as to deter any potential abuse by the majority.

This study examines the philosophical foundations that justify and delimit governmental responsibility for declared governmental programs. It aims to bridge normative political philosophy and legal practice by investigating how political promises and programmatic commitments are transformed into moral and legal claims subject to accountability. The first section analyzes the constitutive relation between authority and public obligation, reviewing legitimacy theories and social-contract reasoning as grounds for treating governmental programs as commitments that citizens may legitimately expect to be honored as a condition of democratic trust. The second section situates accountability within theories of justice, showing how distributive and procedural justice supply evaluative criteria and moral impetus for rendering programmatic aims assessable and enforceable. The third section considers governmental responsibility in light of the principle of legality and the rule of law, outlining institutional pathways legislative specification, administrative oversight, judicial review, and parliamentary mechanisms through which political commitments can acquire legal bite or political sanction. Methodologically, the paper combines conceptual analysis with comparative legal inquiry to map how different constitutional frameworks mediate the tension between political discretion and legal constraint. Findings indicate that the legitimacy of holding governments responsible for their programs rests upon a dual convergence: the normative authority conferred by representative institutions and the ethical-legal demand to fulfill public obligations. The study concludes by proposing a calibrated accountability framework statutory clarity regarding programmatic obligations, empowered oversight bodies, and remedial procedures that strengthens accountability while preserving policy continuity and democratic governance.

This study examines the issue of disputed territories under the 2005 Constitution of the Republic of Iraq, taking Sinjar District as a case study for constitutional analysis. The research aims to clarify the conceptual and legal framework of disputed territories and to analyze the constitutional basis adopted by the Iraqi constitutional legislator, particularly Article (140), while assessing the effectiveness of its implementation in practice.
The study adopts a constitutional analytical approach, supported by descriptive and comparative methods where appropriate, in order to identify the constitutional, legal, political, and security obstacles that have hindered the implementation of the constitutional provision and resulted in the continued suspension of the legal status of Sinjar. The research concludes that the core problem lies not in the deficiency of the constitutional text itself, but in its non-implementation and the absence of institutional commitment, which has undermined the supremacy of the Constitution, weakened legal certainty, and negatively affected the stability of the federal system. The study recommends reactivating Article (140) or reorganizing it through clear constitutional and legislative mechanisms, strengthening the role of the Federal Supreme Court and parliamentary oversight, and ensuring that the resolution of the dispute is achieved through legal procedures that respect the will of the population and preserve the unity and stability of the Iraqi federal state.

The enforcement of general administrative sanctions is considered one of the most critical issues affecting individual rights and liberties. This stems from the administrative authorities' power to implement such sanctions against the general public without the necessity of judicial recourse, and in the absence of any prior functional or contractual relationship with the administration. This reflects the magnitude of the prerogative granted to the administration under the rules of public law, whereby it simultaneously assumes the dual roles of both adversary and judge .Consequently, the legislator did not vest the authority to impose sanctions in all public employees; rather, it restricted such power to a very limited class of senior officials, or through temporary or permanent committees specifically designated for this purpose. Furthermore, the legislator sought to define the mechanisms through which the administration may impose sanctions on violators, either by authorizing the direct enforcement of its administrative decisions (administrative coercion) when expressly stipulated by law, or by requiring the administration to resort to the judiciary to obtain a judicial ruling that ensures the enforcement of the general administrative sanction.

With the developments taking place in the field of human life, interest in modern human rights has increased, especially within constitutions that adopt a democratic approach. The constitutional legislator has devoted chapters or sections in the constitution to regulating these rights. From this perspective, it can be observed that the constitutional approach to civil rights has begun to take shape in modern constitutional documents, as well as through the amendments introduced to those documents. Therefore, the right to humanitarian assistance is the constitutionally agreed-upon model, as it belongs to the third generation of rights, which is based on the obligation of states to provide food aid, health care, and other essential needs to citizens during times of crisis. Among these constitutions is the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq of 2005, which includes aspects of this right in its various articles.

This research examines the crime of violating the obligations of advertising agencies by analyzing its legal nature and the legal basis upon which it is founded. It also studies the general elements of this crime, represented by the material (actus reus) and moral (mens rea) elements, as well as the specific elements manifested in the status of the offender in the crime stipulated in Article 8 of Law No. 45 of 1971, and the specific criminal intent in the crime stipulated in Article 403 of the Penal Code. The research concludes with several findings, most notably that the crime of violating the obligations of advertising agencies is a crime of endangerment rather than a crime of harm. It also proposes several recommendations, foremost among them the need to amend the penalty for the crime of violating the obligations of advertising agencies, and to amend the Consumer Protection Law in a manner that ensures advertising agencies’ compliance with refraining from publishing any advertisement that may be misleading or deceptive to consumers.

This research aims to analyze the role of organizational intelligence as a modern approach to enhancing integrity and transparency within public institutions and reducing administrative corruption, using a legal–analytical perspective. The study highlights the risks of administrative corruption as one of the most significant challenges facing institutional performance due to its negative impact on public resources, efficiency, and societal trust. In contrast, organizational intelligence offers a dynamic framework that enables institutions to understand their environment, develop capabilities, leverage information, and make timely and rational decisions. The research outlines the concept of organizational intelligence and its core components—such as knowledge management, organizational learning, strategic vigilance, and risk prediction—and links them to legal and regulatory mechanisms that can be employed to combat corruption. It also examines the legislative framework governing public institutions and evaluates its responsiveness to the requirements of organizational intelligence, focusing on oversight tools, whistleblower protection, transparency systems, and legal accountability.
The study concludes that integrating organizational intelligence principles into the legal and administrative structure of public institutions strengthens the state's ability to prevent corruption proactively. It shifts institutions from rigid bureaucratic systems to intelligent entities capable of detecting irregularities and making evidence-based decisions, thus supporting innovation and good governance.

This research addresses the legal problematic of international contracts, which share national authorities—a defining characteristic of one of the pillars of public law—with the binding force of international contracts that assume primary control in private law within the framework of economic globalization. Cooperative globalization in the field of investment has given rise to a dimensional legal system that operates, to a certain extent, on the will of commercial banks, particularly in the countries concerned, through contracts, agreements, and orientation agreements that weaken the state's authority over most of them and its resources. The study adopts an analytical approach, examining the opinions and assumptions presented regarding the phenomenon of the erosion of sovereignty in the face of the dominance of international contracts. The research also explores the philosophical foundations of this transformation by comparing the concept of legitimacy in the social contract (which established the concept of the state) with the concept of legitimacy in international contracts (which redistributes power between the state and global economic actors). The research concludes that national sovereignty within the legal system is undergoing a phase of transition from absolute sovereignty to composite sovereignty, where the state shares its functions and benefits from transnational actors. It proposes to re-examine an agreement between public employees, within a contractual framework of controlling and preserving everything that is appropriate for the public without regard to the international economic system.

Article history:
Received: 2 February 2026
Revised: 26 February 2026
Accepted: 9 March 2026 The world is witnessing an accelerated digital transformation that has forced judicial systems to reconsider their procedural and organizational structure to keep pace with the requirements of the digital age. In this context, artificial intelligence is one of the most prominent technical tools capable of bringing about real reform in the performance of administrative courts, by speeding up procedures, achieving consistency in judgments, and enhancing transparency. This study focuses on the status of administrative courts in Iraq through the structural and procedural challenges it faces, the slow resolution of cases, the backlog of litigation files, and the weakness of the digital infrastructure. Questions arise about the readiness of the Iraqi judicial system to embrace AI as a correctional tool, and the compatibility of this with the existing legal and institutional environment. The study uses a comparative approach to look at the experience of the United Arab Emirates, which is a model for how to use artificial intelligence in justice institutions. It examines the legislative and regulatory structure in both countries, and the extent to which the UAE has succeeded in integrating these technologies into the work of administrative courts, while drawing lessons applicable in the Iraqi context. The results of the research concluded that artificial intelligence represents a strategic tool for reforming the administrative judiciary, allowing the improvement of the quality of judgments, speeding up litigation, and reducing self-interference in the decision-making process. The study presented a set of legislative and institutional recommendations to develop the judicial structure in Iraq in line with international standards for digital transformation in the judiciary.