Today many countries are focusing in enhance the transparency of business law because they know if they want to develop their economy they must assuring the right and duties of employers/employees, clients/suppliers, entrepreneurs/ investors etc. Apart from development of economy, business law will protect businesses and attract more inward investors because they know that their business will be in safety and they are protected by business law of the country where they are going to investee in. however, in some countries the law is taken seriously and in others, breach of the law is very common, it is obviously that they are some issues behind this matter. To understand the source of this problem, we have to compare between two countries, English business law and Moroccan business law but before that that i have to give a brief idea of Morocco legal system and English legal system.
Morocco’s government kind is constitutional monarchy, the king is responsible of all perpetrations and the continuity of the state, and also he is the supreme representative of the nation. Morocco colonized by French, as a result of that Moroccan law is a combination between French and Muslim law ( chari3a).”I see this as a weakness of Morocco legal system i will talk about it after “.the government comprises of the prime ministers and ministers and they are selected by the king ,the house of counsellors and the house of representative are two composed of the parliament . the hierarchy of Morocco courts are the first instance courts followed by appellate courts and a supreme court that is divided in five chambers they are criminal law, correctional appeals law and social law, administrative law and constitutional, law making process it should be submit by the minister or the parliament, it will have to be passed by the house of representative and the house of counsellors then the members of parliament have to vote for this bill , the king will signs to become a law.
United Kingdom is a constitutional monarchy , there are three important sources of law in UK, European law as England is part of European Union , parliament all its members are responsible of making law, the courts are often came up with new law when there is a new case this called “preceding” . the type of law is public includes administrative and constitutional law and criminal law , the second type is private law is included tort law and family law, probate law , property and contract law. The hierarchy of its courts each one is superior to other, the lowest one is the magister court then the crow court , the county court , the tribunal and the high court is divided in three divisions : Queen’s bench division and family division, chancery division. The court of appeal and the last one is the Supreme Court. In addition for a new bill to become a law, the bill may begin in either the House of Commons or House of Lords then it has to be passed by seven stages where each clause of the bill will be debate then signed in order to become a law.
After giving some information about Morocco legal system and English legal system, the comparison between two system will be easy to identify and one of the main different is that Morocco’s king holds many responsibilities like selecting the ministers and taken the decisions of new laws, while in English legal system, the family Royal is totally separate from the decision of making law, they are like a symbol of the unity. As i mention it before , Morocco’s law based on French civil law and “shari3a” law and my point of view is that we cannot based our law in two kind of laws as we are musilman we have to follow “chari3a” law , it is not fair to apply a French law just because we have been colonized by French , for example when there is a case of heritage they use chari3a law but when someone stiles, they apply French civil law, i can say that is one of the reason why most of people in Morocco is not taken the law seriously, in other hand they precive laws to be weak and laws are not well enforced by the government, in short law works just for the interests of a part of the community like the rich people and those who has the power of influencing law , whereas in United kingdom the law is made to promote the safety and legality of all community as evidence of that i heard one time that they found the Queen of UK in train without ticket , they gave her a sanction to pay it that is the legality.
Morocco’s legal system holds many weaknesses. One of the weakness is the corruption of its justice, it is a major problem toward businesses and the development of economy , the traders and the investors who had dealing with Morocco ‘s jurisdiction usually complain of lack of transparency, moreover corruption leads to increase people who are willing to pay bribe for winning the rights of other, however that has a big effects in the community such as lack of confidentiality, people not taken the law seriously , no respect the rules that are setting by the government . The judiciary is one of key element of economy growth and development and the economy cannot go features with the existence of the corruption, Morocco ranks 78th out of 158 countries in transparency international’s corruption perception index for 2005(heritage.org) that gives a bad reputation about doing business in Morocco, any new investor wants to do business will think about it one hundred times, before deciding wither to invest or not, it is obviously that investors will look for the rank of Morocco in side of transparency, because he or she has to know if his or her business is in safety and protected by business law. Without any doubt, an ideal judicial system able to apply and interpret laws with equitability and efficiently, it will also help the government gains the confidentiality of its community and encourage investors to trust the business law of the country.
he government has to turn its attentin to this problem by ensuring better dissemination of law in the purpose of transparency of the law and also by efficient control on the part of the hierarchy of its courts as well as ensuring a better condition of work may be by higher wages, these are some solutions to bring Morocco’s legal system up and given a good image of the functions of the judiciary, however establishing a business friendly environment and promote the development of the country need a good judicial system and more trustful by all community.
-Business law in Morocco
In Morocco, business law is mainly based on French law, most of number of provisions regarding company law and contra law is pick it from French law, the purpose of that is to allowed the foreign investors to be bite quite familiar with business law of Morocco, even though the main difficulty that can face the foreign investors is the actual application of the clauses. For example, in the case of no fulfilment of a duty, the judge is the only one can decide how to resolve the conflict between two parties, normally some penalty clauses but Morocco use them very rarely, because clauses help to facility of resolving the conflict and save time. We cannot hide that business law in Morocco has taken a serious legal initiatives such as the introduction of new labour law and freedom agreements between many countries, the new programme launched by Morocco the aim of it is the improvement of the integrity and speed of the legal procedure. Despite this progress, closing a business in Morocco ranks 67th (doingbusiness.org) the data shows a weakness in existing bankruptcy law, Morocco has to turn its intention to this weakness, because the time and cost required to resolve bankruptcies are too high, comparing with closing a business in United Kingdom ranked “9th” (doingbusiness.org), this means that Morocco has a lack in bankrupt law.
-Registering property
Registering property is a formal property titles, it helps promote in safety the transfer of company or land…etc, however efficiently and transparency of property registration helps to reduce corruption and transaction cost less also it is ensure the security of rights of the property titles rights, as result of that encourage investment and contribute to the development of the economy.
-Paying taxes
Tax is essential for the government to pay its public duties, small and medium company has to pay tax to the government. Tax is an important indicator to the investors to open a company. Morocco ranked “126th” in the paying taxes it includes number of tax payments, time of payments and total tax rate. Morocco has to ensure a fair payment of tax and reduce rate of it if it want to have a good scale of rank that helps to attract more investors.
-Employees contract law
Employee’s contract law is a legal agreement between two the employer and the employee, there are three types of contract: written and oral or byconduct.
The goals of this contract are to save the rights and duties of both employer and employees. The employment rights ACT 1996 (ERA1996) enforced the employer and the employees to make an employee with a written statement that includes all terms of the employee’s contract within two months of beginning the job, the term of contract in England should include: the names of two parties, the date of starting the work, holidays, hours of work, any sick leave, any pension rights, the title of job, the place of work…..etc. however in Morocco is quietly the same such as: the collective agreement and its contents if it exist, the rules of work, working hours, the method of the holidays, ensuring the health and safety of the employee and protected against the risk of machine, the place of work, providing a card working (in England is a implied term).
The working hours are limited to forty-eight per week, it means no more than ten hours worked per day. The holidays is fixed to be five weeks per year, every employee must be paid of full holidays, but with one condition is that after a employee has been worked continuously in the same company for 13 weeks.
-Wages law
Wage is generally set in the terms of contract either express or implied,
Nevertheless there are some considerations must be taken in the form of payment of wages and they are the same either in Morocco or England, the first one is the equal payment for equal work or work of equal value, the Equal pay ACT 1970 was introduced in England for the purpose of regulation of equal payment at work, also in Morocco there is a ACT (NO, 83-635 of 13-7-83) that provides the same regulation of equal payment of work. The protection against sex discrimination is in both countries by two ACT: Morocco art ( L-140-2 and 140-3) and England ACT1957 said: it is illegal to discriminate against person on the grounds of their sex or material status either directly or indirectly, treating man or woman less favourable will lead to sue the wrongdoer, there are many case where discrimination come into existing in relation to employment. For instance: advertising jobs, interview and selection procedures, the terms of employment contract, promotion, and other facilities available to employees. Despite Morocco ACT, most of community is not taken seriously this ACT because people is afraid of taken an action against the wrongdoer they think that there is no law which can protect them against discrimination. For example where i was doing an internship last summer in Morocco, i saw a case of woman was treating less favourable than man by her employer and she cannot take any against it because she is afraid to lose her job and she did not know about that Act against sexual discrimination. The government should be aware of this and it must inform all community about its laws it can be by advertising them or doing some seminars to inform people about any previous or new laws.
-Rights at work: health and safety at work
The provision of medical services is obligatory in all companies that employing more than fifty persons, every firm must respect some standards of safety. The health and safety and safety at work ACT1947 was introduced to set a general policy of controlling the safety and health at work place, the ACT ensures that the department of employment follows the regulation that was setting by the government, the operation of such health and safety are supervised by the inspector of health and safety at work
– Protection against dismissal and redundancy
Employees are a subject of breach of contract by its employers. There are three categories in these areas: wrongful dismissal, unfair dismissal, Redundancy, the explanation of these categories with the comparison of morocco and English:
-wrongful dismissal occurs when a employer dismissal a employee without any notice. The minimum notice periods according to the employment right Act (1996) are: no notice in more than one month in employment, one week’s notice when one month to two years of employment, one week’s notice for each year completed after two to ten years’ employment, 12weeks’ notice after more than ten years. The minimum notice periods according to Dahir N� (I-03-194) 2003 are: Warning, 1st blame, 2nd blame or layoff = or <8 days, 3rd blame or taking account of changing residence. In Morocco there is no specific duration of any of these notice periods and there is clarity of time after each notice, otherwise in England they give a specific duration after each notice.
-unfair dismissal is a case when an employee dismissal lawful and all notice periods are given by the employer.
-Redundancy is a case when an employer wants to reduce its size of workforce. However, the redundant employees have the right of suing the employer in order to gain compensation. But In Morocco there is no clear Dahir that protect right of redundant employee.
Conclusion
To summaries my essay, Morocco is ranked 128th (doingbusiness.org) interne of ease of doing business and that is due to its weakness in legal system and also its bad rank in employing workers law 176th (doingbusiness.org) and in the law of protecting investors 165th (doingbusiness.org). Otherwise England is ranked 5th (doinbusiness.org) interne of ease of doing business and this is due to the fact that has a good rank in employing workers law 35 and protecting investors 10. From i can conclude that law contributes to the development of the country’s economy and helps to encourage investors to invest more because they are aware of the importance of the law in protection of its business .
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