Constitutional Council (Arab Union)

The Constitutional Council (Arabic: المجلس الدستوري al-majlis ad-dustūrī) is a semi-permanent body of the Supreme Court of the Arab Union which was first convened in October 1991 to begin drafting a new constitution, which it completed and submitted to the Supreme Court in June 1999. The Supreme Court approved the draft in late July, submitting it to the Presidium of the Arab Congress in early August. The Presidium delivered the draft to the President of the Arab Union on 30 August 1999, who signed it into law the same day.

The new constitution's main pragmatic task was restructuring government according to a federal plan by assigning agencies each to a specific level of government (federal or republican); many such agencies or areas of jurisdiction were formerly split between two or more levels of government (the Arab Union was de jure a unitary state under the previous constitution of 1958; by the 1990s, the Arab Union practiced devolution in the great majority of areas of jurisdiction of public administration, making it a de facto federation).

The Constitutional Council was dissolved upon the official completion of the new constitution's ratification and the accompanying governmental and administrative restructuring. According to the Constitution of the Arab Union, the Supreme Court retains the power to recall the Constitutional Council to draft and submit constitutional amendments, which it has done thirteen times, ten of which were passed; it may also be recalled in the event a new constitution is proposed entirely, although with the function of amendments this is virtually guaranteed not to come to pass.