The Constitutionality of Amending the Application of the Personal Status Law in the Kurdistan Region: A Constitutional Study

The subject examines the constitutionality of amending the application of the Personal Status Law by Law No. 15 of 2008, which amended the application of Personal Status Law No. 188 of 1959, based on the right of the region to enact legislation related to its citizens on the one hand and its right to amend the application of the federal law on its citizens in the region on the other hand. The importance of the research focused on clarifying the constitutional basis for this right and the extent to which the Federal Supreme Court dealt with the subject after the Personal Status Court in Halabja filed an appeal to it regarding the conflict of the provisions contained therein with the provisions of the Constitution. The Federal Supreme Court expressed its opinion on the subject, so we tried to examine the court’s ruling in the balance of constitutionality by clarifying the content of the ruling and the grounds on which the court relied in its ruling and its evaluation. Finally, we reached the most important results, the constitution’s recognition of the right to amend the application of the federal law in the region and the conflict of the court’s opinion with the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Iraq for the year 2005. Keywords: Amendment of the application of federal law, federalism, Federal Supreme Court, polygamy, alimony and inheritance.