التحديات والمعيقات التي تواجه توحيد القوانين المطبقة في فلسطين

This research aims to study the challenges relating to the unification of laws applied in Palestine as a result of the political fluctuations that Palestine has undergone since the Ottoman Empire until the present moment. The stretch of legal historical timeline covers the Ottoman rule, the British Mandate and the Israeli occupation, the annexation of the West Bank with Jordan and the Gaza Strip with the Egyptian administration, the complete occupation of all of Palestine, the emergence of the Palestinian National Authority and the era of unification of laws. This paper examines the obstacles that would hinder the unification of laws in Palestine, and in order to propose solutions, relies on the legal historical approach to narrate the contextual approaches in the issuance of laws during the different eras. The paper has also utilized descriptive and analytical approaches from the study of legal texts issued on the matter. This paper notes that the absence of a structured legal committee to harmonize the legal terms and nomenclatures in the laws issued by the Palestinian National Authority is a significant hindrance to the unification of laws in Palestine. This is in addition to the absence of executive regulations for most of the laws issued during the era of the Palestinian National Authority or in the previous eras, the absence of explanatory notes to refer to and specialized studies for the need to issue new laws to ensure its appropriate implementation. Such are important to adhere to the legislator’s intent and directions towards the effective execution of the law. This paper recommends a structured effort in the form of the establishment of committees to harmonize and unify the different laws as applied in Palestine, in addition to issuing executive regulations for the laws and developing explanatory notes as needed.