Draft:Syrian Constitution of 1962

• Comment: Please provide more citations as per previous reviewers' comments. Aeon Sentinel (talk) 18:46, 30 April 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: Agreed. With a few more references, this belongs. It is the *opposite* of things we'd generally reject. Unfortunately, my guess is a good number of sources are in arabic, so I'm not sure I'd be good in looking for them. :( Naraht (talk) 19:21, 26 April 2026 (UTC)

• Comment: Likely notable but needs the sourcing to show it. Rambley ^{(talk / contribs)} 10:24, 12 December 2025 (UTC)

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Constitution of the Syrian Arab Republic
Overview
Original title	دستور الجمهورية العربية السورية
Jurisdiction	Second Syrian Republic
Presented	11 September 1962 (1962-09-11)
Ratified	13 September 1962 (1962-09-13)
Date effective	13 September 1962 (1962-09-13)
System	Unitary parliamentary republic
Government structure
Branches	Three (executive, legislative and judiciary)
Head of state	President
Chambers	Unicameral (Chamber of Deputies)
Executive	President-led Council of Ministers responsible to the Chamber of Deputies; Prime Minister as head of government
Judiciary	The Supreme Court, the Court of Cassation, the Council of State, and other courts
Federalism	Unitary
Repealed	7 March 1963 (1963-03-07)
Author	Constituent and Parliamentary Assembly
Supersedes	Provisional Constitution of 1961
Superseded by	Provisional Constitution of 1964
Full text
Constitution of Syria (1962) at Wikisource
دستور الجمهورية العربية السورية at Arabic Wikisource

The Syrian Constitution of 1962 was a short-lived constitutional framework adopted in September 1962 in Syria. It was approved during a period of political instability following the collapse of the United Arab Republic and a series of military interventions in politics. The constitution was adopted by the Constituent and Parliamentary Assembly elected in December 1961.

The document was largely based on the 1950 Constitution of Syria, but included several transitional provisions designed to accommodate the political realities of the time, including greater powers for the executive branch and provisions allowing the government to legislate by decree. It remained in effect only briefly, superseded by the constitutional changes that followed the Ba’ath Party's takeover in 1963.

Background

Following the dissolution of the United Arab Republic (UAR) in 1961, Syria attempted to restore parliamentary political life. A constituent assembly was elected in December 1961 with the aim of reestablishing constitutional governance.

However, on 28 March 1962, a coup attempt led by Lt. Col. Abd al-Karim al-Nahlawi disrupted the political process. The military leadership detained President Nazim al-Qudsi and dissolved the parliament. As had been common practice since the first Syrian military coup in 1949, the army consulted civilian political leaders who were not imprisoned in order to determine how constitutional legitimacy might be restored.

Political leaders advised the army to reject President Qudsi's resignation, which he had submitted on the eve of the coup. Accepting this recommendation allowed him to return automatically to office. Qudsi agreed to resume the presidency on the condition that he receive written authorisation from more than half of the members of the Constituent Assembly granting him both executive and legislative authority temporarily, alongside a transitional government.

The assembly met outside the official parliament building at the residence of former prime minister Khalid al-Azm in Damascus. Between 11 and 13 September 1962, deputies adopted the 1950 constitution as the legal basis of government, together with a set of amendments designed to address the political situation.

Main provisions

The constitution maintained the basic structure of the 1950 constitution but introduced several important transitional modifications:

• The President of the Republic would nominate the prime minister and present the nominee to parliament for a vote of confidence. If approved, the prime minister could appoint ministers without further parliamentary approval.
• Parliament could, by absolute majority vote, delegate its legislative authority to the Council of Ministers. Legislative decrees required approval by two-thirds of the cabinet and had to be issued under the chairmanship of the president.
• The government was granted the right to dissolve the current parliament provided that new elections were held within one year. Unlike previous constitutional rules, the government that dissolved parliament was not required to resign.
• The constitution restored the Supreme Court, which had been abolished during the period of union with Egypt.

Most of these amendments were placed in a special chapter titled “Transitional Provisions.”

Historical significance

The 1962 constitution forms part of Syria's constitutional history during the period known as the Second Syrian Republic.. Despite the unusual circumstances of its adoption—including meetings held outside the official parliament building—it represented an attempt to restore parliamentary constitutional government.

The extraordinary session that adopted the constitution is widely considered the last session of a representative parliament operating under a liberal parliamentary system in Syria. Subsequent legislative bodies established after the 1963 Ba’athist coup operated under different political frameworks influenced by the models of Nasserist Egypt and the Soviet Union, often described as forms of “popular democracy.”

References

This page will be placed in the following categories if it is moved to the article namespace.

Categories:

• Constitutions of Syria
• Defunct constitutions
• 1962 establishments in Syria