Judicial System

Judicial System in Saudi Arabia
Judges generally adhere to the teachings of the Hanbali
School with rare deviations, and the Cassation Court used to
overrule judgments on grounds of conflict with the Hanbali
School (1) . It seems that the vague wording of the resolution
as to the binding nature, lack of support to the resolution in
Saudi judicial laws and incessant change of circumstances
and customs led judges to rely less on the books/ authorities
cited in the referred to resolution and tended to rely on their
discretion when making rulings - this resulted in differences
/ variances with respect to in rulings relating to similar cases.
From a different perspective, it is not true to say that
Saudi Arabia lacks codified laws, as there are many
substantive and procedural laws such the Bribery Law, the
Anti-Counterfeiting Criminal Law, the Anti-Money Laundry
Law, the Employees Disciplinary Law, the Civil Service
Law, the Military Service Law, the Sharia Procedure Law,
the Criminal Procedural Law, the Law Profession Practice
Law, the Banking control Law, the Combating Commercial
Fraud Law etc.
All the same, much needs to be codified particularly in
the areas of civil law and criminal law; however, the case
here may be similar to common law countries where there
are many legal principles not codified, and judges rely on
judicial precedents. Judicial precedents differ from one state
to another even within the same county as in the United
(1) Essay on Codification of Jurisprudence of Rulings by Sheikh Abdul
Muhsen Al Obeikan, published in Riyadh paper on Friday 20 Rabi 1, 1426H
corresponding to April 29, 2005, issue 13458.
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