The Civil State in Tunisia’s Constitutional Trajectories: Between the Explicit and the Implicit

Dr. Kaouthar Debbeche May 2026

This article explores the role that the constitutional dimension has played in the construction of the civil state, whose foundations are one of the constitutive elements of the ‘DNA’ of the Tunisian modernisation project. This requires returning to the historical roots of that construction and examining the country’s successive constitutional trajectories. By analysing constitutional texts, the core elements of the relevant legislative framework, and jurisprudential interpretations, the study argues that the constitutional dimension served as a mechanism for consolidating a civil state project that predated Tunisia’s constitutional experiences.

On this basis, the article distinguishes between two phases. The first spans the period between the Constitutions of 1 June 1959 and 27 January 2014 respectively, during which the civil state project developed with relative continuity, notwithstanding constitutional limitations. The second phase begins with the constitutional moment of 25 July 2022, which marked a decisive rupture and a departure from the previous trajectory. During this phase, the constitutional text became an obstacle to the civil current —indeed, a moment of interruption in the constitutional momentum of the civil state. The new constitution obscured the civil state and introduced the “maqasid of Islam” into the text, which, under a strict interpretation, could obstruct what we have described as the ‘vessel’ toward the civil state.