Rule by Law (rule of man): Egypt's stabs the rule of law

Mohamed Arafa

doi:10.5007/2177-7055.2025.e109982

Autores/as

Mohamed Arafa Alexandria University https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5388-8048

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.5007/2177-7055.2025.e109982

Palabras clave:

Rule of Law, Authoritarianism, Constitutionalism, Human Rights

Resumen

This article examines the paradoxical relationship between the Rule of Law and authoritarian governance in contemporary Egypt, arguing that the legal system has been strategically instrumentalized to legitimize repression rather than to uphold justice and democratic principles. Through an analysis of Egypt’s constitutional framework, emergency legislation, counterterrorism laws, and judicial practices, the study demonstrates how the state employs “rule by law” rather than “rule of law,” enabling the executive to centralize power, undermine judicial independence, restrict civil liberties, and suppress political dissent. Drawing from primary sources, jurisprudence, and human rights reports, the article highlights how legal mechanisms, including extended pretrial detention, military courts for civilians, and exceptional decrees, are used to perpetuate authoritarian control while maintaining a façade of legality. The study concludes that Egypt’s current legal order represents a systematic erosion of the Rule of Law, wherein law becomes a tool of domination rather than a safeguard of rights, justice, and constitutionalism.

Biografía del autor/a

Mohamed Arafa, Alexandria University

Mohamed ‘Arafa is a Professor of Law at Alexandria University Faculty of Law (Egypt) and an Adjunct Professor of Law & the Clarke Initiative Visiting Scholar at Cornell Law School. In Summer and Fall 2025, he is teaching Comparative Law and Comparative White-Collar Crimes as a Visiting Professor of Law at the Brazilian Institute of Education, Development and Research (IDP), Faculty of Law, in Brasília, Brazil. In 2023-2024, he was a Visiting Professor of Law at Chandigarh University the Institute of Legal Studies (UILS) in India (Fall 2024) and an Assistant Professor of Law at Prince Sultan University College of Law (Saudi Arabia). He is an affiliate faculty at the Rutgers Center for Security, Race, and Rights at Rutgers University School of Law. In 2022-2023, he was a Visitor-in-Law & the ELEOS Justice Visiting Scholar at Monash University Faculty of Law in Australia. From 2012-2020, he was a Visiting Adjunct Professor of Law at Indiana University Robert H. McKinney School of Law (Indianapolis). In 2021, he was a Visiting Professor of Law at the Holy Spirit University of Kaslik (Lebanon). Between 2016-2019, he served as a Visiting Professor of Law at the University of Brasília Faculty of Law (Brazil). He received his LL.B. from Alexandria University (2006), his LL.M. from the University of Connecticut School of Law (2008), and his SJD (Doctorate) from Indiana University (2013).

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