Rights
A federal republic with a constitutionally recognised Kurdistan Region
The 2005 Constitution establishes a federal parliamentary republic and recognises the Kurdistan Region as a federal region with its own parliament, government and security forces. The Federal Supreme Court resolves disputes between the federal government and the regions.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Federal, with the Kurdistan Region legislating for itself in most non-exclusive areas and its own courts applying regional law.
Governing law
- Constitution of the Republic of Iraq 2005
- Law of the Federal Supreme Court No. 30 of 2005
- Article 140 — the unresolved procedure for disputed internal territories
In practice
The constitution gives the federal government a short list of exclusive powers — foreign affairs, defence, fiscal and monetary policy, citizenship — and provides that in shared areas regional law prevails over federal law where they conflict. That priority rule is unusual and is the source of continuing dispute, particularly over oil and gas, where the Kurdistan Region enacted its own petroleum law and the Federal Supreme Court held in 2022 that it was unconstitutional. Article 140, which set a procedure and deadline for resolving the status of Kirkuk and other disputed territories, has never been implemented. Anyone advising on Iraq must ask which legal order applies before anything else.