Rights
No settled constitution: a 2011 interim declaration and rival authorities
Libya has operated under the 2011 Interim Constitutional Declaration since Gaddafi's fall. A 2017 draft constitution was never adopted by referendum, and rival executives and legislatures claim authority.
Key rules
- Jurisdiction — Contested. The Government of National Unity in Tripoli and authorities aligned with the House of Representatives in the east both exercise governmental functions.
Governing law
- Interim Constitutional Declaration 2011, as amended
- Draft Constitution 2017never ratified
- Libyan Political Agreement 2015Skhirat
- Law 59/2012 on local administration
In practice
Any description of Libyan constitutional law must begin with the fact that there is no ratified constitution and no single authority whose enactments are uniformly recognised. The 2011 Interim Declaration remains the nominal framework, amended repeatedly, and the 2017 draft prepared by the Constitution Drafting Assembly never went to referendum. The Supreme Court in Tripoli has issued rulings on the legitimacy of institutions that were not accepted by all parties, which is the clearest illustration of the problem: a judgment on the books is not necessarily an operative rule. Elections planned since 2021 have not been held. For practical purposes, the question of which authority's law applies is territorial and must be established before any substantive analysis.