The draft civil procedure code raises controversy, and lawyers open a battle against the project.

The draft civil procedure law has sparked controversy in Morocco, after the Moroccan Bar Association announced a battle against the draft.
In this context, the House of Representatives announced that a public session will be held next Tuesday to study and vote on a draft law related to civil procedure.

The President of the Scientific Student Council, in an official statement to all representatives, stated that “the Council will hold a general session on Tuesday, July 23, 2024, at ten o’clock in the morning, dedicated to studying and voting on Draft Law No. 20.23 relating to civil procedure.”

According to its introductory memorandum, this project aims to: “address the shortcomings revealed by judicial practice, procedural waste due to the complexity of procedures, and the slowness of procedures and the implementation of rulings.”

The statement, which Agadir 24 has seen, indicated that approving the project would “adopt legislative solutions that take into account the specificity of Moroccan reality, through legal formulation that facilitates understanding the content of the texts and the objectives of Sharia.”

In this context, the Association of Bar Associations in Morocco announced the opening of a battle against the draft civil procedure law and the organization of a press conference in Rabat.
In a statement, the association criticised what it called “serious setbacks” that deeply undermine the primary role and legal status of the legal profession.
The association’s office explained that since the beginning of its term, it has consciously and responsibly chosen to open channels of dialogue with the government and various parliamentary groups, in addition to an advocacy plan through the involvement of academics, legal experts and professionals in order to raise awareness of the seriousness of what the project entails in terms of “setbacks and serious infringement of the rights of litigants, constitutional and legal gains, legal security and judicial security”, and the negative effects that this entails in terms of multiple dimensions and results, in light of the government’s incomprehensible insistence on passing the provisions of the project despite its serious infringement of national gains in the field of justice.
The association’s office confirmed its determination to take all appropriate steps to confront these setbacks with all firmness, calling on the government to back down from the “unconstitutional provisions that affect the citizen and his right to defense and have negative effects on the economy and investment climate.”
He also called on all lawyers to rally around their professional institutions and engage in all the initiatives that will be announced.