The location of the judicial system in national systems of government
State of the Judiciary System under the National Governance Systems
According to the Constitution the Judiciary is one of the three Sudan's Powers. The Country is composed of two personalities: the first one is personality of the whole citizens as a cohesive entity and personality of the Government considering it as the executive organ of the first personality. Personality of the Government is composed of the President of the Republic being head of the Country who enjoys specific powers according to the different governance types, a prime minister who is entrusted, by the President of the Republic, with forming the government taking note that constitutions have not determined a specific way for electing the Prime Ministers but they all agreed on that it is necessary that nomination should be issued formally by Head of the Country. Prime Minister is head of the Executive Power while the Legislature is represented by the Parliament, the National Assembly or the Constituent Assembly whatsoever the name it takes which differs from one country to another.
It became settled to all jurisprudents and constitutions that the Judiciary is the third Power which is independent from the other two Powers which are the Executive Power and the Legislature but the disagreement is related to the approach of appointing officials of the Judiciary, determining their remunerations and wages and dismissing them off work, such disagreements have been considered by constitutions, so they stipulated the way of appointing judicial officials for realizing the perfect independency of the Judiciary and lest it becomes under control of the Executive Power. The constitutional provisions related to the Judiciary system stipulated in all constitutions of Sudan (1956 – 1998) are not different from the international constitutions which stipulate the fundamental provisions that determine functions of the Judiciary as well guaranteeing independency thereof. If there are some disagreements they would definitely be related to administrative issues.
In 1972 Act of the Judiciary was issued stating that Minister of Justice will be in charge of the Judiciary, so law men preferred that the Judiciary would be entrusted with their different affairs even the administrative ones. The Act was considered as an unexpected step made to the Judiciary thereby it was transformed from the system maintained for seventy years to another new system totally adopted from the Egyptian system. The said system faced with many obstacles resulted in stopping it after less than one year, for (Act of the Judiciary for the year 1972) became effective on 3/6/1972 and was repealed on 8/5/1973 when Act of the Judiciary for the year 1973 was issued.
Act of the Judiciary for the year 1972 nominated the President of the Republic as the highest authority, in other words "President of the Republic would decide on all important issues related to the Judiciary in his capacity as executor of the interests of the people who provided him with power and in view of the fact that he is entrusted with protecting their capabilities and beliefs".
When Nemery took the reins of power in May 1969 he adopted a policy which was called (the Comprehensive Cleansing) against the Armed Forces, civil service and the Judiciary resulted in releasing all judges of the Supreme Court. Earlier, in the system of Abboud, President of the Republic was entrusted with all legislative, judicial and executive powers, besides the Higher Council of the Armed Forces was the supreme judicial power in Sudan.
When the Military Council, headed by lieutenant general AbdelRahman Mohamed Hassan Swar AlZahab held power after asserting overthrowing of Nimery's Government a number of the Judiciary's representatives submitted a memo to the general staff of the People's Armed Forces on Sunday the seventh of April 1985 with regard to entrusting the Judiciary's affairs to the judges, and they realized the same.
In the middle of the sixties (1965 – 1969) development of the Judiciary has greatly affected by extent of political situations stability, for there were always conflicts among the political parties and sometimes within the same party which resulted in disregarding developing the Judiciary by the national governments and for another reason which is the extreme sensitivity related to interfering with affairs of the Judiciary even the mere administrative ones, though such a sensitivity did not deter party senior members from always attempting to interfere in affairs of the Judiciary.
Government of "25 May" endeavored to promote the Judiciary, so it created a secret system thereto, hereunder the Higher Judiciary Council was established for managing the administrative affairs with the Chief Justice. Functions of the Council were determined and it was obligatory that Minister of Finance and other concerned persons would be members therein. Thus the year 1972 is considered as date of commencement of the first phase for promoting the Judiciary while the year 1992 is considered as date of commencement of the second phase for promoting the same, for the number of courts opened from 1992 till 2005 are as equal as number of courts established from beginning of the century, in addition to the fact that all utilities of the Judiciary witnessed a comprehensive development since 1992.