In post-Gaddafi Libya, laws and regulations are commonly seen as some of the main tools towards reconstructing the country. Yet, the high volume of legislation is associated with problems.  Among these problems is the ambiguity of governing rules and procedures, a problem that seems to affect not only ordinary legislation, but also basic legislation, for instance the constitution. Fundamental principles of inclusiveness, participation, transparency and consensus-based decision-making appear not to be fully considered in the making of Libya’s constitution.

These preliminary observations are based in part on a previous project undertaken by the University of Benghazi and VVI, Access to Justice and Institutional Development in Libya (AJIDIL), as part of a larger research project conducted by The Hague Institute for Global Justice (THIGJ) with the working title of The Hague Approach: Achieving Sustainable Peace-Building - Peace Palace 2013. The AJIDIL project, which ran until December 2013, explored and analysed people’s access to justice and the working of (legal) institutions in post-conflict, democratic Libya. The current project, Assessing Legislation for Libya’s Reconstruction, seeks to take these initial observation further by examining specific pieces of legislation.

This research project will result in publication of several academic papers and articles on different aspects of legislation in Libya, as well as a final report synthesizing the different findings.

The following events form part of this research project (1)  Workshop on Constitution Making in Libya: A Study of its Procedural and Substantive Aspects, March 2015 (2)  Workshop on assessing post-Gaddafi legislation: case studies, June 2015 and (3) Final conference, September 2015.

• fragile and conflict affected states
• law making
• libya