Algeria

Legal tradition

Algeria belongs to the civil law with islamic law in personal status tradition. A civil-law system built on French codes retained after independence in 1962 and progressively Arabised, with socialist-era features in property and economic regulation that were unwound from the late 1980s. The Civil Code of 1975 governs obligations and property. Family law comes from the 1984 Family Code, amended significantly in 2005 to require the bride's own consent, restrict polygamy to judicial authorisation with notice to existing wives, and remove the requirement of a marital guardian for adult women, though the guardian remains as a formality. Hydrocarbons law is unusually prominent in the commercial system, with a dedicated regulatory regime and state pre-eminence through Sonatrach.

How power is divided

Unitary, with 58 wilayas headed by walis appointed by the President alongside elected wilaya assemblies, and communes below them. Local bodies administer central policy and hold limited own-source revenue; they do not legislate.

Where law comes from

The Constitution

Supreme; reviewed by the Constitutional Court since 2020.

Legislation

Statutes of the People's National Assembly and Council of the Nation; organic laws for institutional matters.

Presidential ordinances

Issued between sessions or in exceptional circumstances, subject to later ratification.

Islamic law

The reference for the Family Code and the residual source in personal status and succession.

Custom

Recognised where legislation and Islamic law are silent.

The legal profession

Avocats are admitted through regional bars coordinated by the Union Nationale des Ordres des Avocats, with separate accreditation required for appearance before the Supreme Court and Council of State. Judges and prosecutors form a single career magistracy trained at the École Supérieure de la Magistrature. Notaries and bailiffs are regulated public officers in the French tradition, and notarial deeds are compulsory for real-property transfers.