The Official Gazette of Iraq (Alwaqai Aliraqiya) has been published since August 1922 as a means of introducing legal measures into force via publication.
The Law on Publication in the Official Gazette No. 78 of 1977 states in Article 1(Second) “Everything published in the Official Gazette is considered as the credible official text and it shall enter into force on the date of publication unless otherwise stated.” This concept has generally been followed other than during the CPA era, when all laws were stated to come into effect upon the date of signature and laws which are required by circumstances to taken effect immediately (e.g. Law No. 26 of 2008 (Amendment to Election Law No. 16 of 2005)).
From 1962 to 2002 an English language compilation from the Official Gazette was also published. It is not an issue by issue translation but rather a selection of laws in translation cross referenced to the original Arabic issues. The CPA era Gazettes in 2003 / 2004 were published in Arabic and in English.
The last edition published before the fall of Saddam Hussein was issue 3976 on 31 March 2003 which contained the Law to establish a board for the ‘Saddam Institute for the Study of the Quran and al-Sunna’, Law No. 14 of 2003.
The Official Gazette website [NB this link appears to have expired in 2010] makes available some Official Gazette issues (3978 (17 June 2003) to 4009 (9 November 2005) in Arabic and 3978 (17 June 2003) to 3986 (September 2004) in English), along with a limited amount of other Iraqi legislation (e.g., laws, regulations, orders and instructions). This material is made available “for all interested users, such as Iraqi officials, Iraqi citizens, and the international community”. These documents are made available for information purposes only. The definitive version of the Official Gazette is the printed version.
Most of the website material is in Arabic save for that from the CPA era (2003-2004). CPA era Gazettes are all included in English save for No. 3977 which is available here. The most recent edition in Arabic published on the website is No 4009 from 9 November 2005. The site has been promising for some time that much more material will be available in the future.
We have compiled an online index for the recent Official Gazettes in English and in Arabic and also offer the Gazette in full-text for 1982-2002