CYIL vol. 11 (2020)

CYIL 11 (2020) CONSTITUTION AND PRIVATE INTERNATIONAL LAW… jurisdiction in respect of civil and criminal matters in accordance with the law for the time being in force in the Kingdom, provided that in matters affecting the personal status of foreigners or in matters of a civil or commercial nature which in accordance with international usage are governed by the law of another country, such law shall be applied in the manner designated by the law”. It should be noted the same text was repeated by Article103 of the Constitution of 1946 and repeated in Article 103 of the current Constitution of 1952. According to the text, the foreigner particularly non-Muslim is not subject to the Jordanian law in terms of his personal and family status. However, apart from the Law on Inheritance Issues for Foreigners and Non-Muslims of 1941, no special law on the personal status pertaining foreigners was enacted. Thus it should wait until the apparition of the first Civil Code enacted in 1976. Articles 11-29 of the Civil Code, under the title “conflicts of laws in space”, regulates the most rules of private international law. The draft of the Egyptian Civil Code of 1948 inspired all of these provisions. Various areas of Private International Law are covered by these provisions, whether it is general issues such as the qualification, la ronvoi , the exception of public order, the rules on conflicts of laws. The latter provisions designating the applicable law will be applied to a legal relationship entailed with an external element, including the personal status, the contractual and extra-contractual obligations, the forms, the property, and the procedures 28 . Private international law is a branch of law that has already acquired a full scientific autonomy in relation to the corresponding branch of substantive domestic law. In Jordan, the rules on private international law are set in the preliminary provisions of the Jordanian civil code which could be understood as a first step in codification of this branch of law. But in practice, there are no practical consequences for this classification when it comes to interpreting rules that fall under the same statute. Unlike many foreign systems of private international law, the Jordanian rules on conflicts of laws is characterized by its legislative and non-judicial origin. Nonetheless, such a possibility has been recognized to the courts to fulfil any gabs in the provisions of the legislation. The fact the legislative rules on conflict of laws are not exhaustive, granting an important role for jurisprudence and the doctrine to fill any gaps. Hence, Article 25 of the Civil Code provides that the principles of private international law shall apply in the absence of a relevant provision in the foregoing Articles governing the conflict of laws. This Article is very essential, it represents an important mechanism of openness of the Jordanian jurisprudence on the international and comparative law. However, the gradual internationalization of our sources on private international law requires building capacities of the doctrine and the jurisprudence. In general, the rules on private international law are an integral part of the legal system of the forum and, therefore they are subject to the hierarchical standards of its sources. This is how the legislator decides whether the content of the rules applied in private international law must be in accordance with the national Constitution with regard to, for example, gender equality or the elimination of all kinds of discrimination based on race, origin, and even, in principle, on the religion. In this regard, the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany issued two decisions on 22 February 1983 and 8 January 1985 in which it considered that:

28 See AL-DABBAGH, Harith “Regards critiques sur les règles de conflit de lois en droit international privé irakien”, Revue internationale de droit comparé , 58,3,(2006): 885-924.

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