Why has legal and judicial reform in the Arab region failed in promoting the rule of law, ensuring judicial independence and safeguarding democratic values: prerequisites for economic, political, and social development?

This dissertation attempts to address this failure in the context of historical developments of legal reform in the Arab region by analyzing the impact of the reform methods that replaced the preexisting legal system with an adopted, Western-inspired legal tradition.

The geographical focus of the analysis is Egypt, which has a long history of legal reform movements that have influenced the Arab region. A comparative case is provided by The Sudan, comparing the impact of re-Islamization of the legal system within the context and dynamic of a Western legal system.

The thesis' hypothesis is that the historical reform process was not oriented towards creating a viable rule of law, and had the effect of creating a widely held sense of dichotomy between what is legal, and what is legitimate, in the popular conscience.

The implication of this analysis is that future reform attempts to re-introduce Islamic law, using Western inspired legal doctrines, are likely to result in a further failure, due the considerable differences between these systems.