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LSRU

We are a collective dedicated to advancing the systematic and critical study of legal reform in modern and contemporary Egypt. Our work brings together a diversity of judges, legal professionals, parliamentarians and members of civil society in regular seminars, workshops, conferences, and summer schools.

AUC Tahrir campus

Who We Are

Housed under the Office of the Dean of the School of Global Affairs and Public Policy, the LSRU pursues its mission under formal academic cooperation agreements signed with the Egyptian State Council, the Ministry of Justice and the Bar Association. Founded in 2014, the LSRU has established the reputation of a rigorous and safe academic space where contemporary debates in law and public policy can receive the serious attention they deserve.

LSRU Conf

Our Mission

The Law and Society Research Unit is committed to promoting state-society engagement by providing free access to legal information under our digital archive Manshurāt Qānūneya, offering scholarships for promising young judges and lawyers to pursue graduate studies at AUC’s Department of Law, along with specially tailored short courses for select court employees.

Strategic Goals

  • Manshūrāt Qānūneya

    Manshūrāt Qānūneya (MQ) is the first open-access database of its kind to offer a wide variety of primary legal materials in Arabic focused on the Egyptian Legal System. We aim to raise awareness, assist in legal research and public interest litigation, and provide the necessary information tools for law reform efforts. For more information, visit www. manshurat.org.

      

    The total number of archived materials currently stands at documents including:

    - 110 Constitutional Documents

    - 13100 Laws

    - 3784 Judicial Documents

    - 33000 Presidential and Ministerial Decrees

    - 1,193 Fact-Finding and Other Reports

     

    Publications

    - Judges and Revolution: The Egyptian State Council 2011-2018 (Forthcoming Spring 2019, Arabic: Dar Al-Shorouk, English: AUC Press)

    - Law and Society in Post Revolution in Egypt 2011-2015 (Forthcoming Fall 2019, Arabic: Dar Al-Shorouk, English: AUC Press)

    - Legal Timeline 2011-2019 (Forthcoming Fall 2019, Arabic: Dar Al-Shorouk, English: AUC Press)

    1. Graduate fellowships

    The Law and Society Research Unit offers the following fellowships for graduate study toward the LLM Degree in Comparative and International Law, the MA degree in international human rights law, and graduate diplomas at AUC’s Department of Law:

    • Egyptian State Council Fellowships

    • Criminal Justice Fellowship

    • Enhancing State-Society Engagement Fellowship

     

    1. Legal English Short Courses

    Intensive 90 credit hours courses focusing on a variety of legal topics including arbitration, litigation, company law, criminal law and comparative law.

     

    1. Capacity Building Workshops (15 workshops)

    - The New Civil Service Law

    - Legal Mechanisms to Combat Human Trafficking

    - Cybercrimes: Essential Concepts and New Approaches

    - Refugee Protection under Egyptian Law

    - Methodologies of Action Research

    - Forensic Evidence Bureau

    - Toward a New Family Law

  • Community Outreach

    The Law and Society Research Unit regularly holds the following events:

     

    • Conferences

    - Fourth Annual Conference of the Arab Association for Constitutional Law, Fall 2014

    - LSRU 1st Annual Conference: Law and Society in Egypt 2011-2015, Fall 2015

    - LSRU 2nd Annual Conference: The Egyptian State Council and the Protection of Rights and Freedoms during the Transitional Period, Spring 2017

    - LSRU 3rd Annual Conference: Criminal Justice and Current Challenges to its Reform, Spring 2018

    - The 2nd biennial Law and Society Conference in Africa Conference: Africa & the Middle East in an Era of Global Fragility

              

    • Public Seminars

    Topics include:

    - On Media and the Judiciary: A Four Years’ Account

    - Labor Strikes between Legal Regulation and Judicial Application

    - What’s Happening with the Education Law?

    - A Discussion on Proposed Amendments to the Police Act

    - Women and Personal Status Laws

    - Creativity and Art under the Egyptian Constitution

    - Regulation of Organ Transplants

    - Egyptian Farmers, Irrigation Challenges and Recent Amendments to the Agriculture Law

    - Reforming Rent-Control Laws

    - A Year with the Comprehensive Healthcare System Law: Current Challenges

    - The Centennial of the 1919 Revolution: The Narrative and the Law

     

    •  Total number of attendants: 1950 attendants

    •  Average attendance: 70 persons

     

    • Summer Schools

    - Reforming the Criminal Justice Sector in Egypt (2017)

    - Law in Action: Africa-focused Methods and Applications (2018)

Partners

Local Partners

The Egyptian State Council

The Egyptian Ministry of Justice

The Egyptian Bar Association

 

Regional and International Partners

Arab Association of Constitutional Law, Tunisia

Birzeit University’s Institute of Law, Palestine

University of Cape Town’s Centre for Law and Society

Cornell Law School’s Clarke Initiative for Law and Development in the Middle East

Dejusticia, Columbia

Projects and Donors

1) Manshurat Qanuneya

Open Society Foundation

2) Administrative Law in Post-Revolution Egypt

 Ford Foundation

3) Egyptian Criminal Justice Reform

UK Embassy in Cairo

4) For examining current trends among religious and social actors in the Arab region

Carnegie Corporation

5) Enhancing State-Society Engagement

 Swiss Development Cooperation

* All figures included in this document are as of July 2019.

Related Links

Law and Society Research Unit Facebook Page