Journal of Constitutional Law in the Middle East and North Africa

The Journal of Constitutional Law in the Middle East and North Africa (JCL-MENA) is a venue for scholarly analysis on issues related to constitutions and constitutional law throughout the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region. JCL-MENA head office is based in Beirut, Lebanon.

JCL-MENA is dedicated to encourage greater discussion and critical analysis of constitutional and legal developments in the MENA region. Featuring articles by legal scholars and practitioners from the region, it facilitates access to information on regional constitutional issues and debates for the global community of practitioners and scholars.

JCL-MENA is founded, managed and edited by the Arab Association of Constitutional Law. The first issue was published in English in December 2020 exclusively online due to the Covid-19 spread at the time of the launch. The second issue was published in English and Arabic in December 2021, both online and in print. The third issue is published in partnership with the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World (PLSMW) at Harvard Law School.

JCL-MENA will publish one issue every year. It will also periodically publish special issues that will cover either a specific topic at the cutting edge of constitutional law or a single country undergoing significant constitutional transformations.

Arab Association of Constitutional Law (AACL)

Established in 2013, the Arab Association of Constitutional Law (AACL) is the first regional network of constitution drafting experts in the Middle East and North Africa. AACL’s main objective is to contribute to good governance by promoting intra-regional learning. It also aims to provide objective, grounded and forward-thinking technical analysis of the region's constitutional frameworks and to apply its expertise to legal and constitutional reform efforts throughout the region.

Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World (PLSMW)

The Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World (PLSMW) is a research program at Harvard Law School with a mission to support rigorous and cutting-edge scholarship that addresses the complex relationships between law and society in Muslim majority and minority contexts around the world.

Executive Board

Tamara El Khoury

Lecturer on Constitutional Law and Executive Director, Arab Association of Constitutional Law. Co-editor of the third issue of JCL-MENA.

Salma Waheedi

Lecturer on Law and Executive Director , Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, Harvard Law School. Co-editor of the third issue of JCL-MENA.

Academic Advisory Board

Zaid Al-Ali

Lawyer specializing in comparative constitutional law and international commercial arbitration. Senior Adviser on Constitution-Building for the Arab Region at International IDEA.

Aslı Ü. Bâli

Professor of Law at the UCLA School of Law. She teaches Public International Law, International Human Rights and a seminar on the Laws of War. She joined UCLA from the Yale Law School where she was the Irving S. Ribicoff Fellow in Law, and coordinator of the Middle East Legal Forum.

David Fontana

Samuel Tyler Research Professor of Law at George Washington University Law School, Washington D.C.

Rainer Grote

Senior Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institute for Comparative Law and Public International Law, Heidelberg; Adjunct Professor of Public Law at the University of Gottingen, Germany.

Kathrin-Maria Scherr

Managing Director and Head of Sub-Saharan Africa Operations at the Max Planck Foundation for International Peace and the Rule of Law.

Kristen Stilt

Professor of Law and Director of the Program on Law and Society in the Muslim World, Harvard Law School.