MP Imad Youkhana Yaqoo, Rapporteur of the Iraqi Council of Representatives sent a request to the Federal Supreme Court for the purpose of interpreting the term “other disputed areas” mentioned in paragraph 2 of Article 140 of the Constitution in terms of:
1. Definition of the disputed areas.
2. What is the criteria in determining whether the region is disputed or not?
3. Which is the authority to determine whether the region is disputed or not?
After evaluation and deliberation, the Federal Supreme Court found that Article 140:2 of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq (2005) stated that “the responsibility placed upon the executive branch of the Iraqi Transitional Government stipulated in Article 58 of the Transitional Administrative Law shall extend and continue to the executive authority elected in accordance with this Constitution, provided that it accomplishes completely (normalization and census and concludes with a referendum in Kirkuk and other disputed territories to determine the will of their citizens), by a date not to exceed the 31st of December 2007”
The Federal Supreme Court finds from the above constitutional text that the constitution uses the term “disputed areas” in Article 140:2 to refer to the disputed areas between the Kurdistan region and the federal government. And that the Article 53:A of the Administrative State Law for the transitional stage has drawn the boundaries of the Kurdistan region where it states: The Kurdistan Regional Government is recognized as the official government of the territories that were administered by the government on 19 March 2003 in the governorates of Dohuk, Arbil, Sulaimaniya, Kirkuk, Diyala and Nineveh.
The term “Kurdistan Regional Government” shall refer to the Kurdistan National Assembly, the Kurdistan Council of Ministers, and the regional judicial authority in the Kurdistan region. The Supreme Federal Court finds that the disputed areas are those lands that were administered by the Kurdistan Regional Government in the above-mentioned text on 19 March 2003.
The criteria in determining whether the area is disputed or not is shown in Article 53:A of the Administrative State Law for the transitional stage: the boundaries of the eighteen governorates shall remain without change during the transitional period.
Paragraph 3 of the request, regarding the authority to determine whether the region is disputed or not, the Federal Supreme Court finds that this was defined by Article 140:1 of the Constitution in light of the provisions of Article 53:A of the Administrative Law Transitional of the transitional stage for the transitional period.
The decision was issued based on article 94 of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq 2005 and Article 5:2 of the Federal Supreme Court Law No. 30 of 2005.
The decision issued on October 29, 2017.
