One of the more remarkable things that King Abdullah has accomplished is to limit the powers of his successors, whether in the new succession laws or the new judicial system. Both do grant more power more broadly. He is reducing the power of the monarch deliberately.

I think post number 10 was meant to spam and promote the site offered in the link not to add value to the discussion.

On another topic, the more I read and think about this new reform the more I like it. There are 2 thoughts I want to add. 1) The new Supreme Court will replace the ultra conservative Supreme Judicial Council (which will be relegated to administrative duties). This can be used to lessen the powers of conservatives in one quick action. 2) Like US presidents leaving a legacy beyond their presidency by appointing Supreme Court Justices, King Abdulah can extend his influence beyond his ruling period. Since, he has been the most reform minded king so far, that may be real good for the future.

It will be interesting to see the make up of the supreme court.

Could you expand on that?

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They will lead, as Saudi says, to precedents that will be built upon in their own sets of consequences.

Just a follow-up on your last comment. I think even without a written set of law. The concept of structuring the courts will introduce precedence in rulings from higher courts over time. This by itself is of high value.

The other advantage I see is that the specialized court structure at the lower level will allow the codification to move faster in certain areas of the law once that process begins.

I know that these new reforms will not solve all of the issues of the Saudi judicial system. However, it is a big step. I am really looking forward to see the details of how this will work over time.

The process of codification will be a mess for a while. But it will be an organic mess, grown from within the Saudi system and thus having a large amount of buy-in by the Saudi publics. Even if the King could simply say, “Here are the laws: Enforce them,” it would be counterproductive to do so.

Once a judge knows they are in for life they are free to rule as they see fit, not at the whims of the electorate or those who appointed them.

My next question is since very little of what passes for law in Saudi is actually written government ordinance, versus religious law, from what code of regulations/laws are these judges going to make their rulings? If they are just going to continue down the same road with religious law and tribal law acting as the template, I dont see how this will change anything.

As religious ideas and rulings vary widely, I dont see how this will work.

Still, by formalizing the judicial system, it makes further reforms more easily accomplished.