Time-limits for appeals, warnings and the passage of time in Iraq
The Law Office of Ali Barakat in Baghdad sets out the periods that Civil Procedure Law No. 83 of 1969 fixes for challenging judgments and decisions, and how those periods differ from a formal warning and from the passage of time that bars hearing a claim under Civil Code No. 40 of 1951. The Civil Procedure Law was published in the Official Gazette, issue 1766 of 10/11/1969, as recorded in the Iraqi Legislation Database. The page arranges the periods as they appear in the text. The deadline is counted from the text and from the papers of the file.
General rules that apply to paths of challenge
Article 168 lists the legal paths for challenging judgments: objection to a judgment in absentia; appeal; retrial; cassation; correction of a cassation decision; and a third-party objection. A challenge is accepted only from a party who lost the case, and is not accepted from a person who has expressly waived the right before the court or in a paper authenticated by a notary public, under article 169. Decisions issued during the hearing that do not end the case may be challenged only after the judgment that disposes of the whole case, except decisions that the law allows to be taken to cassation on their own, under article 170.
Article 171 provides that the periods fixed for pursuing paths of challenge against decisions are mandatory. Failure to observe them, and exceeding them, causes the right of challenge to fall, and the court of its own motion dismisses a petition of challenge filed after the legal periods have expired. The legal periods start to run from the day after service of the judgment, or the day after the judgment is treated as served. The parties may pursue the legal paths of challenge before the judgment is served, under article 172. Payment of the fee marks the start of the challenge, under article 173.
The legal period is suspended if the person against whom judgment was given dies, or loses capacity to litigate, or the capacity of the person conducting the litigation on that party's behalf ceases, after service of the judgment and before the legal period expires. The suspension ends only after the judgment is served on the heirs, or on one of them, at the last domicile of the decedent, or at the domicile of the person who stands in the place of the party who lost capacity, or of the person with the new capacity. The period starts afresh for those persons after service in that way, under article 174.
These rules are general. The period for each path, and any exception the statute states, is read in the article that governs that path, and in any special statute that fixes a different period.
Challenge periods as they appear in the text
| Path | Period | When it starts, or a special feature | Article |
|---|---|---|---|
| Objection to a judgment in absentia issued by the Court of First Instance or the Sharia court, other than in urgent matters | Ten days | Subject to article 172 | 177 |
| Appeal | Fifteen days | From the day after service or deemed service, with the exception in article 187, second | 187 |
| Retrial | Fifteen days | From the day after the fraud comes to light, or the perpetrator admits forgery, or judgment establishes the forgery or perjury, or the withheld paper comes to light | 198 |
| Cassation of judgments of the Courts of First Instance, of personal-status matters, of personal status, and of appeal | Thirty days | Subject to articles 172 and 216, and to other periods in special statutes | 204 |
| Cassation of the decisions listed in article 216, including urgent measures, precautionary attachment, grievance against orders on petitions, striking out a claim, staying a claim, refusing to join related claims or to transfer a case, refusing to appoint or recuse arbitrators or to fix their fees, and a decision accepting or rejecting a request to correct a material error | Seven days | From the day after service of the decision or the day it is treated as served | 216 |
| Correction of a cassation decision | Seven days, and the period ends in all cases six months after the decision to be corrected was issued | From the day after service of the cassation decision | 221 |
A person against whom a judgment in absentia has been given by the Court of First Instance or the Sharia court may object to it, other than in urgent matters, within ten days, under article 177. Challenging a judgment in absentia by a path other than objection is treated as a waiver of the right to object.
The parties may appeal judgments of the Courts of First Instance given at first degree in claims whose value exceeds one million dinars, and judgments of those courts in bankruptcy and company-liquidation cases, under article 185. The period for appeal is fifteen days. If the first-instance judgment was given on the basis of fraud by the other party, or a forged paper, or perjured testimony, or because the other party concealed a decisive paper, the period for appeal starts only from the day after the person against whom judgment was given learned of that fact, or from a written admission of forgery by the perpetrator, or from a judgment establishing the forgery or the perjury, or from the appearance of the concealed paper, under article 187. The appeal is made by a petition filed with the Court of Appeal or with the court that issued the judgment, under article 188.
Retrial may be sought against judgments of the Courts of Appeal, of the Courts of First Instance given at last instance, or of the Sharia courts, if one of the grounds listed in article 196 is present, even if the judgment under challenge has become final. Those grounds include fraud that affected the judgment; a written admission that the papers on which the judgment was based were forged, or a judgment so holding; a judgment against a witness for perjury; and the applicant obtaining, after judgment, material papers that the other party had prevented from being produced. This path is not available against first-degree judgments of the Courts of First Instance for so long as an appeal remains available, under article 197. The period is fifteen days, running as article 198 provides. The application is filed with the court that issued the judgment, or the court that has replaced it, after the petition is registered, the fees are paid, and the security provided for in article 199 is deposited.
The parties may take a judgment to cassation in the situations set out in article 203, including where the judgment is based on a violation of the law, an error in applying it or a defect in interpreting it; where it was issued contrary to the rules of jurisdiction; where a material error affecting the validity of the judgment occurred in the procedural steps; where the judgment contradicts an earlier final judgment in the same case between the same parties or those who stand in their place; and where a fundamental error occurred in the judgment. The period for this path is thirty days in respect of judgments of the Courts of First Instance, of personal-status matters, of personal status, and of appeal, subject to articles 172 and 216 and to other periods in special statutes, under article 204. The challenge is made by a petition filed with the court that hears the challenge, or with the court that issued the judgment, or with the court of the applicant's place of residence, under article 205. No new plea and no new evidence may be introduced before the court hearing the cassation, except a plea as to standing, jurisdiction, or a prior judgment in the case, under article 209.
Article 216 allows cassation within seven days of the decisions it lists. The challenge is heard by the Court of Appeal of the region if the decision was issued by a Court of First Instance, a Personal Status Court or a Court of Personal Status Matters, and by the Federal Court of Cassation if it was issued by the Court of Appeal sitting as a court of appeal. The cassation decision that results is final. Cassation of orders on petitions is not accepted until a grievance has been made to the person who issued the order, in accordance with article 153.
Decisions of the Court of Cassation, and decisions of the Court of Appeal sitting in cassation, may be challenged only by an application to correct the decision, filed with the court that issued the decision to be corrected, and only within the limits and on the grounds set out in article 219. Those grounds include the court's omission to consider a legal ground the applicant had put forward; a clear contradiction between the cassation decision and a provision of law; and internal contradiction in the decision, or contradiction with an earlier decision of the Court of Cassation in the same case without a change in the parties in person or in capacity. The period is seven days from the day after service of the cassation decision, and it ends in all cases six months after the decision to be corrected was issued, under article 221.
Formal warnings, and the passage of time: two different paths
A formal warning is a means by which the holder of a right puts the person from whom performance, action or restraint is demanded on notice. It may be given through a notary public, or by another means that a special provision recognises. The effect of the warning, and any period attached to it, are fixed by the provision that governs the facts, not by the table of challenge periods above. The Civil Code and special statutes may attach different effects to a demand or a warning without turning them into a period for challenging a judgment.
The passage of time that bars hearing a claim is a third path. Its source is articles 429 and following of the Civil Code: a claim on an obligation is not heard against a person who denies it after it has been left, without a legally recognised excuse, for fifteen years, with shorter periods for some rights; the right itself does not fall with the passage of time; and the court does not refuse of its own motion to hear the claim on this ground. That path is set out on the page When is a civil claim no longer heard because of the passage of time?. Mixing a challenge period with a time-bar period changes the result: the former is mandatory and the court applies it of its own motion; the latter is a plea raised by a person with an interest in it.
Legal basis and sources
- Civil Procedure Law No. 83 of 1969 (Official Gazette No. 1766 of 10/11/1969)
- Civil Code No. 40 of 1951 (Official Gazette No. 3015 of 8/9/1951)
Frequently asked questions
From which day does a challenge period start?
From the day after service of the judgment, or the day after it is treated as served, under article 172, unless the article that governs that path provides otherwise, as in appeal in cases of fraud, forgery or a concealed decisive paper, and as in retrial.
What happens if the period expires?
Article 171 makes the periods mandatory. The right of challenge falls if they are exceeded, and the court of its own motion dismisses the petition of challenge.
Does a formal warning open a period for appeal or cassation?
The table of challenge periods above is tied to service of the judgment or decision, or to the facts that the articles governing those paths describe. A formal warning is a separate path. Its effect is fixed by the provision that governs the right itself, not by the article on the challenge.
Is the passage-of-time period the same as the cassation period?
No. The cassation period for the judgments mentioned in article 204 is thirty days as a rule. The passage of time that bars hearing a claim on an obligation is, in principle, fifteen years, with shorter special periods, and it does not extinguish the right itself.
Related topics and articles
- 01When is a civil claim no longer heard because of the passage of time?Civil Code 40/1951 bars hearing a civil claim after time has passed: periods, suspension and interruption; the right itself does not fall.
- 02How is a civil right proved, and what force do electronic messages have?Proving a civil right under Evidence Law 107/1979, and the legal force of signed letters and electronic documents under Electronic Signature Law 78/2012.
- 03Where to file a claim in Baghdad: the Rusafa courts or the Karkh courts?How to choose where to bring a civil claim in Baghdad, between courts attached to the Rusafa appeal presidency and those attached to the Karkh appeal presidency, under the territorial-jurisdiction rules of the Civil Procedure Law and the decree that split the Baghdad appeal region.