Palestinian Legal Environment: Challenges & Opportunities for eGovernment Initiatives

1. Palestinian Legal Environment
Challenges & Opportunities for eGovernment
Initiatives
Jamil Salem
Institute of Law, Birzeit University
j.salem@birzeit.edu

2. I. Evolution of the Palestinian Legal System
II. Establishment of the Palestinian Authority
III. The Legislative Process and the State of Exception
IV. State of Emergency
V. E-Government
VI. E-Government – Legal Framework
VII. Policy Cycle & Tools
VIII. Al-Muqtafi (Experience of the Institute of Law-Legal
Informatics)

3. The Palestinian Legal System is often characterized
as complex since it consists of different layers of
colonial codes and rules:
 Ottoman Rule (1516 – 1917)
 British Mandate (1918 - 1948)
 Egyptian Rule over the Gaza Strip (1948 – 1967)
 Jordanian Rule in the West Bank and East Jerusalem
(1948 – 1967)
 Israeli Occupation (1967- ??)
 Palestinian Authority (PA) (1994 - !)

4. II. Inception of the PA (1994 – )
(Oslo Accords)
Limited Territorial, Functional and Personal Jurisdiction
Occupied Palestinian Territory divided into:
a. Area A: Major Cities (Hebron, Bethlehem, Ramallah, Nablus, etc)
(ca. 18%)
 Under Control of the PA
b. Area B includes villages and refugee camps (ca. 24%)
 Mixed Jurisdiction (PA: civil matters, Israel: security).
c. Area C includes the rest of the West Bank (ca. 58%)
Under sole Israeli Jurisdiction
o Interim Period should have ended in the year 1999.
o The Last Colonial Question still unresolved after 43 years of
occupation!

6.  Draft Laws may be proposed by the Government or
at least a member of the Palestinian Legislative
Council
 Different Committees at PLC
 General Debate
 First, Second and Third Readings
 Promulgation and Publication
 Legislation enter into force after 30 days of
publication in the Palestinian Official Gazette
 Electronic Publication: Al-Muqtafi at the Institute of
Law, Birzeit University in cooperation with the PNA.

7.  Second Legislative Elections in 2006 and political divsion between Fatah
and Hamas
 PLC paralyzed, since most of its members are in Israeli prisons.
 President declared state of emergency and started issuing legislation
based on Article 43 of the Palestinain Basic Law.
 Article 43 of the Palestinian Basic Law
The President of the National Authority shall have the right, in cases of
necessity that cannot be delayed, and when the Legislative Council is not
in session, to issue decrees that have the power of law.
 These decrees shall be presented to the Legislative Council in the first
session convened after their issuance; otherwise they will cease to have
the power of law.
 If these decrees are presented to the Legislative Council, as mentioned
above, but are not approved by the latter, then they shall cease to have
the power of law.

8. E-Government can be classified into the following
areas:
 Information: Making information available online,
for example, on the Web site of a public authority.
 Communication: The ability to interactively access
and exchange information.
 Transaction: The actual carrying out of services,
including the signation of application forms and
electronic delivery of official documents and
notifications.

9.  e-Government is an infrastructure that enables electronic
services between Government-Government, Government-
Business, and Government-Citizen.
 Freedom of choice for users in selecting the means of
communication when contacting with public authorities;
 Security and improved legal protection provided by
appropriate technical measures such as a unique e-card
 To reduce the cost & complexity of the administrative
procedures

10.  Servers interoperate among each other and exchange data messages.
 Exchanging data messages is like exchanging documents, but in a
digital world.
 To enable this e-interoperation we need:
- National Policies
- Legal Framework
- Interoperability Framework
- Security Framework
- Infrastructure

11. The legal scope of e-Government is not
confined to a single law or regulation
PNA Other Necessary
Legislation
E-Transaction and Digital Administrative Procedural
Signature Law Law
Information Systems Law Intellectual Property &
Copyright
Privacy & Data protection E-Crimes
Law
(…) E-Procurement, E-
Notary, E-Elections, E-
Taxation, (…)

12.  The law shall regulate the powers, procedures, and acts of
public administration. It applies to all public officials and
public agencies. (G – G)
 The law shall lay down the basic principles of administrative
procedures.
 The Act shall regulate the ways with which public authorities
and citizens can communicate with each other, such as the
transmission of applications by eMail or Web forms. (G – C)
 Act is not available in Palestine.

13. How can we authenticate people in the digital world?
- Everyone has a unique public key related to him/her.
 The United Nations Commission on International Trade Law
(UNCITRAL) develops "model laws" or templates upon which
governments can develop their own particular legislation.
 UNCITRAL's Uniform Rules on Electronic Signatures
characterize qualified signature technologies in terms of their
ability to ensure integrity of content as well as identity of
origin.
 A qualified signature is equal to that of a handwritten
signature.

14.  Different jurisdictions use citizen cards as an electronic
identification for the internet.
 Palestinian Case: ID Cards (each person has a unique ID
number!)
 The citizen card contains a qualified electronic signature that
makes it possible to sign forms or contracts which normally
require a personal handwritten signature.
 Public Key Infrastructure is needed in order to allow people
use Digital Signatures
 PKI is a set of hardware, software, policies and procedures
needed to create, manage and distribute, store and revoke
digital certificates.
 In addition a Certification Authority is required to give people
public and private keys
An Act is needed to regulate the mentioned elements.

15. To regulate the creation and processing of state databases.
 Can a ministry decide to collect any data?
 Can a ministry decide to process the data for any purpose?
 Can a ministry give the data to other ministries?
 Can a ministry decide not to give data to other ministries.
 Should ministries follow standards/classifications/codes/names
when they register data (like names of cities, countries, medical
tests, car brands, etc.)
 Should ministries follow standard security measures to protect data.
 …..etc.

16. To regulate the creation and processing of state databases.
We need to regulate the ownership and processing of state
databases.
What legal act is needed to describe the functions of databases
(statute, approved by Government?).
 For e-government, we need a “database of databases”.
 Each ministry should provide metadata about their databases?
This database of databases needs to be owned by somebody
This body need to audit whether ministries implement this act?

17. To regulate the processing of data and for what purposes.
◦ Can one obtain/store my data for an unclear purpose?
◦ Can you process my data for other purposes than we agreed?
◦ Can one keep my outdated data?
◦ Can one keep my data longer than the necessity period, of the
agreed purpose?
◦ What measures one should take for accidental loss or destruction
of, or damage to personal data?
◦ Can one transfer my data for another party (or outside the country)
without my permission? and without ensuring that this party follows
an adequate level of data protection?
◦ What personal data is sensitive/private and what extra measures
are needed to protect this data.
 We need a body to audit organization’s information
systems.

18.  E-Transactions &
 Digital Signature
Act
Draft DONE- Information
Being Revised Systems Privacy &
Act Data Protection
Act
By a committee
of IT and law
experts

19. 1. Ex-Ante
Evaluation /
Impact Assessment
4. Ex-Post General and
Evaluation Legislative Policy
Policy Review / Policy
Assessment Formulation
2. Consultation
Communication
& Drafting
Policy
Delivery /
Implementation
3. Interim
Evaluation

20.  Developed and maintained at the Institute of Law, Birzeit
University.
 Content:
◦ All Legislation since the Ottoman period
◦ Consolidation of all valid legislation
◦ Court Judgments (since 1994)
◦ More than 2000 Legal Principles and 200 scholarly comments on
court judgments.
◦ International Documents about Palestine
◦ Legal Dictionary (A/E)
◦ Legal Thesaurus (A/E)
◦ Legal Ontology (Labour Law): used for integration and semantic
interoperability between the legislation and court judgments
databases.

22.  Legislative Harmony in the Legal System
 Consistency in using Vocabularies and
Concepts
 Semantics Integration and Interoperation of
Legal Information Systems
 Semantic Search
 Better Understanding of Domain

23. Thank You for Your Attention
Jamil Salem
Institute of Law, Birzeit University
P.O. Box 14, Birzeit, Palestine
j.salem@birzeit.edu