Executive order (Arab Union)

A presidential executive order (Arabic: أمر تنفيذي رئاسي amr tanfīdhī ri’āsī; def. pl. الأوامر التنفيذية الرئاسية al-awāmr at-tanfīdhīyah ar-ri’āsīyah) is the constitutional name for what is colloquially referred to simply as an executive order (أمر تنفيذي amr tanfīdhī), which is the most direct and binding means by which the President of the Arab Union may issue directive(s) and/or order(s) to any executive government agency, whether an agency of the Arab Union federal government or one of the 20 republican governments (the governments of the Arab Union's 20 republics). The legal basis for the presidential executive order as well as other sweeping executive presidential powers is based primarily on Article 2 of the Constitution of the Arab Union, namely the current one in effect since 1999, which introduced the term "presidential executive order" to the political system; similar presidential authority existed before 1999, but was permitted by a series of constitutional interpretations and rulings of the Supreme Court of the Arab Union, and thereby much less well-defined and limited than today.

Like bills and other legislation passed by either the federal Arab Congress or one of the republics' republican congresses, presidential executive orders are too subject to review by the Supreme Court of the Arab Union or by a republican supreme court (depending on whether the executive order applies at the federal level or at the republican level and to a specific republic)—executive orders found by the relevant supreme court to contravene the constitution in any ways, single or multiple, can be overturned and its ratification and resultant effects reversed by order of the judiciary. Other than the supreme courts, only the President has the power to rescind an executive order.

One of the common uses of an executive order is to dismiss the incumbent Prime Minister of the Arab Union (the head of government of the Arab Union) and/or his cabinet (the Council of Ministers); similarly, the President can dismiss a premier (the head of government of a republic) via executive order, although in both the federal and republican case a new prime minister or premier can only be installed via election in the Arab Congress or a republican congress, respectively. Some important functions for executive orders other than the dismissal of governments or their members include declaring war, martial law, a national state of emergency, ordering the creation, abolition, or significant reorganisation of a particular area of executive government or government-funded or affiliated organisation(s), and the issuing of directives regarding a broad range of other matters of state. Only the President may issue an executive order; the Prime Minister or a premier may issue similarly binding directives to the governments they manage, which are officially called government directives; however, unlike a presidential executive order, a government directive can be vetoed by majority vote in the respective congress, or, more rarely, by the president via executive order.