The Arab Republic of Egypt (Egypt) lies in the northeastern part of Africa. Whilst most of the country lies in Africa, the eastern most part, the Sinai Peninsula, is considered part of Asia and is the only land bridge between the two continents. Egypt is divided into two unequal parts by the Nile River, and its terrain is mostly desert except for the Valley and Delta of the Nile, the most extensive oasis on earth and one of the main centers of habitation in Egypt. Whilst Cairo is the largest city and the capital of Egypt, Alexandria remains the principal port of Egypt on the Mediterranean and the second biggest city.

With an area of more than one million square kilometers (1001450 sq km), Egypt prides itself in having extensive borders: to the west is Libya, to the south is Sudan, to the northeast are Israel and the Gaza strip, to the north is Mediterranean Sea, and to the east is the Red Sea.

Egypt is the sixteenth most populous country in the world with a population of 78.8 million people (2006); not surprisingly most of the population is concentrated near the banks of the Nile River which amounts to about 40,000 sq km, leaving about 961450 sq km uninhabited. This is due to the fact that the land near the banks of the Nile is only arable agricultural land in Egypt. However, there are ongoing efforts of urban development and populating the desert in order to reduce the heavy concentration of the population along the Nile.

Egypt actually has been a coherent political entity since 3200 B.C. and one of the first civilizations to develop irrigated agriculture, urban life, and large scale political structures.

On the muddy banks of the Nile, the oldest political and administrative systems were established when Egypt’s first central state was established. These systems have gone a long way and are now used in the institutions and modern administrative systems as well as the formulas of constitution, parliament, responsible government and judicial authority since the 19th century. At the present time, Egypt is making history again by creating a new phase of economic development and reform, ascertaining political and democratic authority and practices, enhancing freedoms and adhering to the rule of law, and respecting human rights.

The Egyptian Legal System
The Egyptian legal system is built on the combination of Islamic (Shariah) law and Napoleonic Code, which was first introduced during Napoleon Bonaparte’s occupation of Egypt and the subsequent education and training of Egyptian jurists in France.

The Egyptian legal system, being considered as a civil law system, is based upon a well-established system of codified laws. Egypt’s supreme law is its written constitution. With respect to transactions between natural persons or legal entities, the most important legislation is the Egyptian Civil Code of 1948 (the “ECC”) which remains the main source of legal rules applicable to contracts. Much of the ECC is based upon the French Civil Code and, to a lesser extent, upon various other European codes and upon Islamic (Shariah) law (especially in the context of personal status).

Despite the non-existence of an established system of legally (de jure) binding precedents, previous judicial decisions do have persuasive authority. Courts are morally and practically bound (de facto binding effect) by the principles and precedents of the Court of Cassation (for civil, commercial, and criminal matters) and the Supreme Administrative Court (for administrative and other public law matters).

It is worth noting that the classical dichotomy of public and private law has resulted in the crystallization of a separate set of legal rules applicable to transactions involving the State (or any of its institutions, subsidiaries, or state-owned enterprises) acting as a sovereign power. This entailed the establishment of the Egyptian Council of State (Conseil d'Etat), which are administrative courts vested with the power to decide over administrative disputes pertaining to administrative contracts and administrative decrees issued by government officials. These courts apply administrative legal rules, which are not entirely codified, and hence the scope of judicial discretion, in so far as no applicable legislative rule exists, is ample in light of the established precedents laid by the supreme courts.