كيف تقرأ القانون المغربي
Dahir, madda, Bulletin Officiel… Five minutes here and any legal page will make sense. This is the decoder.
Moroccan legal texts speak French and Arabic at once. Learn these six and you can read any citation.
A royal decree signed by the King. Parliament votes a law, but it only takes force once a dahir promulgates it: the royal signature is the final step. That is why nearly every law’s full name begins “Dahir n° …”.
Real example: Dahir n° 1-03-194 (11 September 2003) promulgated law n° 65-99: the Labour Code.
A law voted by Parliament, named by a number like 65-99: the second half is the year the bill was filed (99 → 1999), the first half its order that year.
Real example: law n° 52-05 is the Highway Code: bill n° 52 of 2005.
One big law organizing an entire field into a single book: Labour Code, Penal Code, Commercial Code. Said alone, “the Moudawana” always means one specific book: the Family Code (marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance).
Same book, three names: مدونة الشغل = Code du travail = Labour Code.
The numbered paragraph you actually cite. The trap: newer codes say المادة (madda), while older texts: the Penal Code, the DOC, the Constitution: say الفصل (fasl). Different era, same thing: an article.
So “الفصل 290” in the Penal Code and “المادة 201” in the Labour Code both read simply “Article …”.
The state’s official gazette. A law counts only once printed there, and serious citations give the BO issue number. One rule to remember: when French and Arabic differ, the Arabic edition legally prevails.
Real example: law 65-99 appeared in BO n° 5167: the reference shown on every Ma Loi law page.
Texts from the government, not Parliament. A décret, issued by the Head of Government, implements a law and fixes its details: like the exact minimum-wage amount. An arrêté, issued by a minister, sits one level below.
Rule of thumb: the law gives the principle; the décret gives the numbers.
The dashes are not decoration: once you see the pattern, you can date any Moroccan law at a glance.
Loi n°65-99
Dahir n°1-03-194
Read together: “Dahir n° 1-03-194 portant promulgation de la loi n° 65-99”: royal act 194 of 2003 bringing the 1999 bill, the Labour Code, into force. One sentence, two numbering systems.
When two texts disagree, the higher one wins. Top to bottom:
The full corpus: 284 laws, 25,000+ articles, French and Arabic side by side, English for the major codes: is free. Four ways in:
congé, طلاق, overtime… Search reads every article body, not just titles, in both languages.
23 categories: work, family, housing, business, traffic… Each opens to its laws, each law to its full table of articles.
French and Arabic sit side by side with the BO source reference, and the six major codes now read in English too.
The convention is article + code: “Article 201 of the Labour Code”. Add the law number (65-99) to be exact, and share the article’s link.
This whole guide as a two-minute animation: the six words, the numbers and the pyramid, in pictures.
The questions that come up constantly, mapped to where the law actually lives:
| Your question is about… | Look in | Why |
|---|---|---|
| A deposit (عربون) someone won’t return | DOC, arts. 288–290 | The Code of Obligations & Contracts defines deposits and when they are refundable |
| Overtime, firing, contracts, leave | Labour Code (65-99) | All employment rules: art. 201 sets overtime pay at +25% to +100% |
| Marriage, divorce, custody, inheritance | Family Code | The Moudawana covers the entire field |
| Traffic fines, licence points | Highway Code (52-05) | Everything about the road |
| Crimes and penalties | Penal Code | Offences and sentences (its articles are “فصول”) |
| Residency papers for foreigners | Law 02-03 | Visas, residence cards, overstay penalties |
| Renting a shop or workshop | Law 49-16 | Commercial tenants’ rights, eviction compensation |
