Reading Lab · Dossier 10

What did Iraq inherit from Bremer’s orders?

Two days before leaving, the CPA decided in its last order what Iraq would inherit: of 99 orders issued, it rescinded only 10, amended 35 to hand the Administrator’s powers to Iraqi officials, and left 53 untouched, in force “unless and until rescinded or amended by legislation”. The main heir of those powers: the Prime Minister.

53orders left untouched
35orders amended to hand over powers
10orders rescinded entirely
9regulations and memoranda amended

One hundred orders, one verdict: kept, amended or rescinded

Each square is an order by number · terracotta: amended by Order 100 to hand over powers · dark: rescinded entirely · light: left untouched · hover a square for its title and heirs.

1

Established

Survival is the rule: Order 100 reaffirms that the CPA’s laws and orders “remain in force unless and until rescinded or amended by legislation”, as Article 26(C) of the TAL provides. 53 orders were not touched by Order 100 at all.

ORD-100

2

Established

Outright rescission covered only 10 orders: 4 (Management of Property and Assets of the Ba`ath Party), 5 (Establishment of the Iraqi De-Ba’athification Council), 6 (Eviction of Persons Illegally Occupying Public Buildings), 11 (Licensing Telecommunications Service and Equipment), 12 (Trade Liberalization Policy), 21 (Interim Exercise of Baghdad Mayoral Authority), 42 (Creation of Defense Support Agency), 47 (Amendment of CPA Order 38 on Reconstruction Levy), 61 (Amendment to CPA Order Number 45), 62 (Disqualification from Public Service).

ORD-100

3

Established

The first heir: “Prime Minister” appears in the amendments to 11 orders, regulations and memoranda, taking powers that were the Administrator’s: closing media outlets (Order 14), confiscating property (Order 25), NGOs (Order 45), local government (Order 71).

ORD-100

4

Established

De-Ba’athification survived: Order 1 was amended by deleting one clause (Section 1(6)) and stayed in force, while Order 5, which created the De-Ba’athification Council, was rescinded.

ORD-001 ORD-100

5

Established

Explicit expiry dates were added to only a few orders: Order 15, Order 74; the rest have no end date.

ORD-100

6

Established

Coalition immunity was left intact: Order 17 (Revised), on the status of the CPA, the multinational force and their personnel, was not amended by Order 100; Order 100 itself refers to it while amending the weapons-control order.

ORD-017 ORD-100

7

Open question

Which of them are still in force in Iraq today? The archive cannot say: it ends in June 2004. The answer needs a law-by-law trace of later Iraqi legislation.

Who inherited the Administrator’s powers

Number of orders, regulations and memoranda whose Order 100 amendments name the office.

Method, confidence and limits

Source: the English text of Order 100 in the archive. We split it automatically by its sections (3: amended orders, 4: rescinded orders, 5: regulations, 6: memoranda) and counted, in each amendment, the rescissions, replacements, additions and expiry clauses, and the Iraqi offices receiving powers.

“Left untouched”: an order that was issued (has a document in the archive) and is not named in Sections 3–4; the general rules of Section 2 (replacing “Administrator” and “CPA” with Iraqi officials) apply to it without a specific amendment. Order numbers with no document in the archive appear empty.

Limits: counting office names is automatic; an office may appear in a context other than a transfer of power. What happened to the orders after 2004 is outside the archive.

The text of Order 100 The rhythm of governing → ← Reading Lab