Legislative Harmonization between Criminal Laws and International Agreements in Federal States (Iraq as a Model)

In the era of globalization, state interest’s protection is no longer achieved only through isolation and concentrating on internal affairs, rather the national legislator shall adopt values of an international character to expand the scope of protection for national interests and give them an international dimension, thereby enhancing international cooperation. To ensure the stat’s security, cooperation, and a balance of interests at the international level, it is required that the principle of state sovereignty to be diminished not only internationally but also domestically. In the meantime, this principle has been constrained by the obligations imposed by international law via treaties and international agreements, including criminalizing certain conducts or refraining from criminalizing specific behaviors that are not deemed sufficiently serious. This reflects the political will of the state to avoid international responsibility and sanctions that may not serve its national interests. Hence, criminal law shall keep pace with the evolution of the crime’s forms, patterns, etc. pertaining to the Republic of Iraq which is a federal state that grants, in addition to the legislative authority of federal institutions, the article 121 of its 2005 constitution also has granted the Kurdistan Region the power to exercise legislative authority as well as the authority to enforce and amend the application of federal law in the region regarding matters not within the exclusive jurisdiction of federal authorities under article 110. At the end, all these has led to have disparities and a lack of complementary notion between the penal laws in force in Iraq and those in force in the Kurdistan Region. In the meanwhile, this complementary notion is assumed to exist in which results in dual penal legislative protection for one interest within a state on one hand, and Incompatibility of national law with the international conventions and agreements ratified by the Republic of Iraq on the other hand. Keywords: Harmonization, legislation, international agreements, penal laws, disparities, complementary