Why has Egypt been under emergency rule for the past hundred years?

Egypt has been under a permanent state of emergency for nearly 100 years. This thesis aims at exploring and understanding Egyptian emergency law and its contextual background. It uses a combination of historical and theoretical perspectives to explore how Egypt’s emergency law has developed since its introduction by Britain to the present day. Chapter two examines theories of emergency powers and the failure of traditional theories of emergency powers to explain and justify the permanent state of emergency in Egypt. Chapter three discusses British imperialism in Egypt to show how Britain introduced and enshrined martial law in Egypt’s constitution, as well as other laws, to protect Britain’s political and economic interests in Egypt. Chapter four examines the legal framework of emergency law developed in Egypt after Britain’s departure to show how emergency law developed and expanded from a temporary measure to a permanent one. Chapter five explores the major human rights violations that occurred during, and as a direct result of, the use of a state of emergency. Chapter six examines contemporary imperialism to show how economic pressure from neo-imperialist organisations is used as a tool to enforce certain economic and political ideologies and policies. Further, it examines the resulting increased poverty in developing nations and the subsequent uprisings that occur. This study further explores how different political regimes use such uprisings as justification for using the force that is permitted under a state of emergency. Chapter seven explores how a minority group of elites have used the permanent state of emergency in Egypt to protect their political and economic interests. The research concludes that, given Egypt’s history, it would be naïve to believe that formal constitutional or legal constraints could protect the population from dictatorial ‘emergency’ forms of rule. Further, given the country’s record of colonial and neo-colonial oppression, it is unrealistic to conclude that the solutions lie in Egypt alone. As a result of these conclusions, this thesis recommends social equality, new forms of genuinely participatory democracy, democratic control over all aspects of life (including production, finance and key levers of the economy), guarantees of basic social rights such as education and health, and guarantees of core legal rights such as habeas corpus, open civilian trials and the presumption of innocence