Kuwait’s law is still not up-to-date and is not uniform in terms of its implementation.
The government is not providing adequate training for lawyers or judges and the law does not provide for the right to appeal against verdicts.
The Kuwaiti constitution states that judges must “have a clear knowledge of law, rules, and jurisprudence, as well as a clear understanding of the rights and duties of all citizens, as defined by the Kuwaiti Constitution”.
Kuwait’s government also requires a minimum level of education for all employees, and the government has not provided a timetable for setting up a new legal school.
As a result, there are not enough lawyers in the country and judges often do not have the expertise to interpret Kuwait’s complex civil law.
A 2016 study by the American Bar Association concluded that, “courts and judges in Kuwait do not fully understand the law and the rules governing the legal profession and the judiciary.”
Kuwait has not been able to improve the quality of its legal system, and many judges and lawyers are not trained to interpret the law properly, said Fahd Al-Ahmad, a lawyer with the Kuwait-based Legal Aid Centre.
A lack of funds to hire lawyers The government of Kuwait does not fund legal aid, and there is no mechanism for obtaining financial support from the United States or other international organisations, which may be able to provide legal aid to those in need.
Kuwait’s judiciary has a poor record in defending the rights of its citizens, Al-Abdullah said.
In one case, a Kuwaiti man who was arrested and detained for three months for alleged involvement in a crime in Iraq in 2003 was sentenced to 15 years in prison and fined US$3,500 ($2,400) for allegedly planning to carry out a bomb attack in Kuwait.
According to the Kuwait National Judicial Council, there have been at least 14 cases of Kuwaiti citizens being sentenced to jail terms for terrorism, including an Iranian man sentenced to 18 years for allegedly plotting to attack Kuwait.
In December 2016, the Supreme Court of Kuwait ordered the release of three Kuwaiti men who were jailed for supporting terrorism, saying they were sentenced in accordance with Kuwait’s penal code.
The case was brought by a Kuwait court.
The Supreme Court said the men had received unfair trials, and that the court had found “no evidence” to justify the three men being imprisoned for longer than five years.
“There is no guarantee that the courts are impartial,” Al-Alaman said.
“The Kuwaiti court system is not impartial.
The judicial system in Kuwait is not neutral.
It is a judicial system of the United Arab Emirates.
It treats the United Kingdom in a way that is biased towards Kuwait.
It uses its power in this way to prevent people from accessing justice.”
Kuwait’s lack of funding to pay lawyers raises questions about the legal system and about whether Kuwaitis can afford to hire qualified lawyers, Al Abdullah said.
A 2011 report by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime found that “there is a real danger that lawyers will not be able or willing to defend the interests of their clients and that lawyers may end up being charged with crimes because of the legal problems that they have.”
The report said that “criminal cases involving lawyers are very common and, due to the low level of funding, the amount of time and the resources that are available to the lawyers to defend clients and the clients’ rights, the cases often take more than one year.”
The U.N. said it has identified some of the main barriers that make it difficult for lawyers to obtain legal aid.
In general, lawyers are expected to charge the maximum fee for their services, Al Abdullah said, adding that many lawyers do not make a profit from their work and that this creates an unfair environment for the lawyers.
“It’s not fair that the money that lawyers make is used to pay for a lawyer’s salary, and they are not allowed to negotiate with the client,” he said.
Al-Nahdi said the problem is especially pronounced in rural areas, where there is little money to pay a lawyer.
“We have lawyers who work for only about US$10,000 a month, but sometimes we can pay a lot more,” he added.
Al Abdullah believes that if the government invested more in legal aid and trained more lawyers, there would be more qualified lawyers.