Government of the Arab Union

The Government of the Arab Union (Arabic: حكومة الاتحاد ḥukūmat al-ittiḥād) is the federal government of the Arab Union, formally known as the Union of Arab Republics (UAR). It consists of three branches: the Arab Congress, the legislative branch, a bicameral assembly which jointly elects the Presidium; the Council of Ministers, the executive branch, which oversees multiple ministries and executive state committees (similar to ministries but with a goal-oriented rather than bureaucratic approach); and the Supreme Court of the Arab Union and subordinate Arab Union Court of Appeals, the highest level of the judicial branch of government and the only two permanent federal courts (either federal court may authorise the establishment of temporary tribunals outside the federal capital, to hear less important cases which nevertheless come under federal legal jurisdiction). Subordinate levels of the judicial system (the vast majority of its actual hierarchy) exist entirely at the level of the Arab Union's 20 republics.

The 20 republics (the federated states of the Arab Union) each have their own respective "republican" government, also consisting of three branches. The Constitution of the Arab Union provides for the delineation of the differing jurisdictions of the two levels of government; for example, criminal law is set exclusively by the federal legislative branch, but the republican level of executive government is responsible for the majority of actual law enforcement; similarly, republican judiciaries hear the vast majority of actual criminal trials, the Supreme Court of the Arab Union hearing only cases affecting two or more republics and the Court of Appeals of the Arab Union only appeals of the verdicts of republican supreme courts or of federal tribunals.