Photos by Chris Meyer Feisal Istrabadi, Iraq’s ambassador to the U.N., talked to an audience at the IU School of Law-Bloomington Feb. 28.

Feisal Istrabadi, Iraq’s ambassador to the United Nations and a principal author of Iraq’s interim constitution, is optimistic that Iraq’s challenges in reintroducing constitutional law are possible to overcome.

Istrabadi, a 1988 graduate of the Indiana University School of Law-Bloomington, outlined details of Iraq’s interim constitution during a Feb. 28 lecture on the Bloomington campus. His lecture included an historical sketch on Iraq’s first constitution drafted in 1925 and his opinions on what issues must be addressed in drafting the official constitution.

“Iraq was never Minnesota. The constitution was never fully abided by,” he said, noting that Iraq previously succeeded in creating a rule of law structure, at least until the 1958 coup d’ etat that created constitutional instability. Since, Iraq has been ruled under provisional constitutions.

By 1968, when the Baath Party came into power, there had been a cataclysmic erosion of the concept of constitutionalism, according to Istrabadi. The nation’s lack of a permanent document has led to a widespread misunderstanding of rule of law. The lack of understanding, according to Istrabadi, encompasses Iraq’s intellectuals, many of whom were charged by the previous government to draft provisional constitutions.

“By 2003, you had former deans, former professors of law at the University of Baghdad proposing constitutions for Iraq which would say something like: ‘The right of the accused to a public trial shall not be abridged, unless otherwise ordered by the judge,’” said Istrabadi, prompting laughter from the law school faculty and students in attendance.

He encountered similar flaws in Iraq’s legal system during his work with authorities in creating Iraq’s Transitional Administrative Law (TAL), the nation’s interim constitution. It was written after the March 2003 Iraqi liberation and ratified by ruling authorities in March 2004.

Istrabadi, author of the TAL’s chapter on Fundamental Rights, said the document succeeds in its task of re-establishing constitutional law in Iraq, serving as the official ruling document until the permanent constitution is ratified. Istrabadi is particularly impressed with the document’s protections of religion, freedom of speech and rights for women. The TAL addresses other “substantial issues,” including recognizing the Kurdish language and the mandate for an official constitution to be drafted by August.

“We have a very large set of problems in Iraq. I in no way mean to paint a rosy picture. But I will submit to you, given our history in the last 35 years, the very fact that we are talking about what it means to have a constitution...suggests amazing progress. I am very optimistic,” Istrabadi concluded.