Judicial System

Judicial System in Saudi Arabia
variances relating to rulings is a characteristic of any judicial
system in all countries, as the discretionary power of judges
should be retained in order to make judges observe the
objective differences and circumstances surrounding each
facts/ case. Many laws have been enacted providing for
certain sentences/ punishments; these include Combating
Narcotics Law, Anti-Bribery Law and Counterfeiting
Offences Penal Law.
As to codification of laws, it is important to note that this
matter has not yet been resolved in international judicial
systems. With respect to codification of laws in Rome,
the Justinian Code stated that, ‘our law is of two types: a
written and unwritten law as the case with the Greeks’. The
same apply to the common law system as much of the law
is not codified (written) and the judiciary relies on sources
including judicial precedents (case law).
A matter that concerns judicial transparency is the
debate among the legal community in Saudi Arabia about
‘specialized criminal courts’ which is a special criminal
court for suspects of terrorism offences in the Kingdom of
Saudi Arabia. It is not clear what is the exact jurisdiction of
this court. Official announcements state that this court has
jurisdiction over security matters or state’s security – a very
broad and undefined jurisdiction, however considering the
types of the offences usually referred to this court, one may
conclude that this court have jurisdiction to hear and try cases
which the government consider as threat to the state, and
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