The subject of Local Administration is among the topics of administrative law taught to students in law faculties across Arab universities, including those in Jordan. The local administration system in Jordan has witnessed significant developments in recent years, recently culminating in the issuance of Municipalities Law No. 14 of 2007. We believe this necessitates providing students, researchers, and interested parties with a specialized reference that includes an analytical treatment of these developments, after first addressing the general theory of local administration in the first section of this work.

These developments began when concerned authorities felt in recent years that local councils were suffering from inefficiency and financial deficits, rendering them unable to provide basic services to citizens. Their role was limited, at best, to sanitation and some other service tasks, without any presence in developmental, cultural, and social fields. This prompted the government to establish a comprehensive national plan to reform and develop the local administration system in Jordan, aiming to empower local councils to perform their required role.

The reform process started with the amendment of the Municipalities Law in 1994, allowing the government to merge local councils to create strong councils capable of providing satisfactory services to citizens. In 1996, all village councils were merged into municipalities, as there was no justification for such a large number of local councils and the expenses they incurred, given that municipal councils could perform the duties assigned to them. In 2001, the government saw no reason for a large number of municipalities (328), especially with clear urban and demographic overlap in their areas. It decided to merge these municipalities into 99 larger ones and reduced the number of joint services councils from 40 to 20. The Municipalities Law was also amended—a move that at the time represented a retreat from the democratic approach and an unjustified preference for administrative considerations over political ones—to allow the government to appoint municipal council heads and nearly half of their members instead of their direct election by citizens. Finally, in a step confirming the Jordanian Parliament's commitment to the democratic approach as the country's strategic choice, the Jordanian legislator issued Law No. 14 of 2007, which clearly states that election is the means by which local councils are formed. This law will be the focus of our discussion in this book.

This study, therefore, comes at a time when the new Municipalities Law is entering into force and represents a modest attempt by the author to describe and analyze the local administration system in Jordan in light of this law and within the framework of established local administration systems worldwide. The author has chosen to conduct this study comparatively between Jordanian law on one hand, and British, French, and Egyptian law on the other, given the importance of comparative study in enriching scientific research and considering that the aforementioned legal systems are characterized by their deep experience and proximity—at least in general frameworks—to the Jordanian model.

Study Plan:

This study is divided into two main parts: Part One deals with the topic of local administration in general from a comparative perspective, while Part Two analytically examines the local administration system in Jordanian law.

Part One: General Principles and Comparative Models

This section covers the definition and importance of local administration, distinguishing it from similar concepts, the formation of local councils, membership size, term of membership, membership conditions, compensation, competencies of local councils, financing of local councils, and central supervision over them. The discussion will be general, with reference to the situation in Britain, France, and Egypt, the legal systems chosen as models for comparison with Jordanian law.

Part Two: Applications of Local Administration in Jordan

In this part, we turn to the local administration system in Jordan, first addressing its origin and development from the Ottoman era to the present day. We then discuss in some detail the local councils in Jordan, focusing on municipal councils as village councils have recently been merged with them. In our discussion of municipal councils, we cover their formation, municipal elections, term of membership, loss of membership, compensation, workflow, municipal employees, municipal competencies, financial resources of local councils, and the reform plan for local councils in Jordan. In the third and final chapter of this part, we address the relationship between the central authority and local councils.

ISBN: 9789957164270
Weight: 0.800 kg
Size: 17×24 cm
Paper: White
Pages: 288
Year of Publication: 2023
Binding: Hardcover