1958 constitution (Arab Union)

The Constitution of the United Arab Republic of 1958 (Arabic: دُستور الجمهورية العربية المتّحدة لعام ١٩٥٨ dustūr al-jumhūriyah al-‘arabīyah al-muttaḥidah li-‘ām alf wa tis‘ah mi’ah wa-thamāniyah wa-khamsūn) was the first constitution of the Arab Union, at the time known officially as the United Arab Republic and consisting only of Egypt and Syria, with Lebanon joining in 1961 and Palestine in 1966. It was not until the culmination of the Arab Revolution of the late 1970s/early 1980s that much of the remainder of Arab states joined the union.

In effect until 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 organised the Arab Union as a unitary state, with absolute supremacy of the central government, based in Nasser City from 1970. By the end of the Arab Revolution in 1985, all 20 member republics of the Arab Union had been granted their own unicameral assemblies by the Arab Congress via devolution.

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 as a federated state by constitutional mandate. 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, with the great majority of domestic issues coming under the responsibility of the republics.