Morocco enacts lawyers law as strike and constitutional dispute continue

Morocco’s new law governing the legal profession entered into force Thursday as lawyers continued a nationwide suspension of services and challenged the decision to publish the legislation without a substantive constitutional ruling.

Law No. 66.23 was published in Official Gazette No. 7536 on August 20 under Royal Decree No. 1.26.75, issued on August 18.

The law defines the rules governing admission, training, professional organization and disciplinary procedures. Candidates must generally hold a master’s-level law qualification, pass an entrance examination and complete one year at the lawyers’ training institute followed by a 24-month traineeship. The maximum age for taking the entrance examination is 45.

The Moroccan Bar Associations Association said its comprehensive suspension of professional services, underway since June 15, would continue. Its council is due to hold an extraordinary general meeting on September 5 to decide its next steps.

The dispute intensified after the Constitutional Court said on August 10 that it could not examine the law’s constitutionality because the referral file was incomplete.

Decision No. 277/26 found that the speaker of the House of Representatives had submitted a committee report containing the version approved by the lower house on July 6, rather than an authenticated copy of the final text approved by the House of Councillors on July 7.

The court therefore did not rule that the law was either constitutional or unconstitutional. It said the missing final text prevented it from exercising constitutional review.

Rabat lawyer Mohammed Bensassi said Parliament should have corrected the referral and resubmitted the law before its promulgation. Habib Benchikh, president of the National Association of Lawyers of Morocco, said publication had deepened the dispute and left concerns about lawyers’ independence and defense safeguards unresolved.