1958 constitution (Arab Union)

The Constitution of the Arab Union of 1958 (Arabic: دستور الاتحاد العربي لعام ١٩٥٨ dustūr al-ittiḥād al-‘arabī li-‘ām alf wa tis‘at mi’ah wa-thamāniyah wa-khamsūn) was the first constitution of the Arab Union, at the time officially the United Arab Republic and consisting only of Egypt, Lebanon and Syria, as well as Palestine nine years later. It was not until the culmination of the Arab Revolution of the late 1980s that much of the remainder of the Arab world came under Arab Union control.

In effect from its signing in 1958 to the signing into law of the current constitution in 1999, the primary difference between the 1958 constitution and the current constitution was that the 1958 constitution orgsnised the Arab Union as a unitary state, with absolute supremacy of the central government, based in Nasser City from 1970. Following the Arab Revolutionary Wars, in the 1990s, all 20 member republics of the Arab Union had been granted their own unicameral assembly by the Arab Congress via devolution. Several smaller organized territories gained domestic local governments this way as well.

Following the passing of the 1999 constitution, the Arab Union was restructured as a federation: each of the 20 republics would be considered to share sovereignty with the union as a whole, and each republic's government now existed not via devolution but constitutional mandate. This was not extended to organised territoties, which continue to rely on devolution. The central government became the new federal government, which was given exclusive responsibility over foreign affairs, defence, customs and immigration, and national single-payer healthcare. The great majority of domestic issues are the responsibility of the respective republican government. Each republic was given its own Ministry of Interior, responsible for the republic's National Police, the main law enforcement agency which is in owe to each republic. The federal government maintains law enforcement agencies of its own, but these only involve themselves with criminal matters affecting two or more republics or the union as a whole.