Saudi Arabia's politics: law by royal decree under the Quran

Who holds power under the Basic Law

The Basic Law of Governance was issued by King Fahd as a royal decree in March 1992. It describes itself in its first article: the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia is a sovereign Arab Islamic state, its religion is Islam and its constitution is the Quran and the Sunnah, the traditions of the Prophet. Article 7 says that the government derives its power from those two texts, "which rule over this and all other State Laws". Wikipedia's politics article notes the consequence: there is no legally binding written constitution in the usual sense, and the scriptures that serve as one remain subject to interpretation by religious scholars.

Article 44 lists three powers, the judicial, the executive and the organisational, which is the Basic Law's term for rule-making, and ends: "The King is the ultimate source of all these authorities." Article 70 provides that laws, treaties and concessions are issued and amended by royal decree. Article 6 binds citizens to pledge allegiance to the king on the principle of "hearing is obeying". Article 83 allows it to be amended only in the way it was issued, by royal decree.

There are no political parties and no national elections. Wikipedia describes politics as taking place in two arenas: inside the royal family, and between the family and the rest of society, where the king consults religious scholars, tribal sheikhs and leading merchant families. By custom any adult man may petition the king directly in the majlis, an audience held in the tribal manner.

How the king and his heir are chosen

Article 5 confines the right to rule to "the sons of the Founder, King Abdul Aziz bin Abdul Rahman Al Saud (Ibn Saud), and the sons of sons". The most eligible among them is invited to rule through bai'ah. The same article lets the king name the crown prince and relieve him by royal order, and the crown prince assumes the king's powers on his death until the oath is taken. Since Abdulaziz died in 1953 the throne has passed only among his sons.

The Allegiance Council was created in 2007 to regulate that succession. It is made up of the surviving sons of Abdulaziz and one son of each of his sons who has died, and its task is to determine the heir when the throne or the office of crown prince falls vacant. Wikipedia's history article records that the king who acceded in 2015 replaced the crown prince twice. Australia's Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade describes the crown prince appointed in 2017 as the country's de facto head of state since then.

Article 56 makes the king his own prime minister, and for most of the kingdom's history he was. The exceptions were Faisal, who was prime minister as crown prince under King Saud, and the present arrangement: a royal decree of 27 September 2022 appointed the crown prince prime minister, while the king remained head of state and continued to chair the cabinet meetings he attends.

The family itself is large. Wikipedia estimates the number of princes at 7,000 or more, with most power held by about 200 male descendants of Abdulaziz, and the key ministries and the governorships of the 13 regions have historically been reserved for the family.

What the Shura Council can and cannot do

The kingdom's consultative council is older than the kingdom. Saudipedia dates it to 1924, when Abdulaziz set up an elected National Consultative Council, and to its re-formation in 1927. The modern council dates from King Fahd's reforms of 1992. It opened in December 1993 with a chairman and 60 members, all chosen by the king, and Wikipedia records its growth to 90 members in 1997, 120 in 2001 and 150 in 2005.

The Shura Council Law now provides for a speaker and 150 members chosen by the king from scholars and specialists, with women making up no less than 20%. A decision announced in the 2011 to 2012 session admitted women from the council's sixth term. Freedom House reported that the king appointed new members in September 2024, 19 of them women, bringing women's share to 20%.

The council's powers are those of review. It discusses the development plan, studies laws, treaties and concessions, debates the annual reports of ministries and may propose a new law or an amendment. Its resolutions go to the king, who decides which to send to the Council of Ministers; where the two councils disagree, the matter returns to the Shura and then to the king for a final decision. Wikipedia notes that it has no role in forming the budget. Members serve terms of four Hijri years and must be Saudi by descent and at least 30 years old.

How Islamic law shapes the courts

Article 46 declares the judiciary independent and bound by no authority other than Sharia, and Article 48 has the courts apply Sharia together with regulations the king issues in conformity with it. Wikipedia notes that Sharia in Saudi Arabia was not codified and that there was no system of judicial precedent, so that judges, who mostly follow the Hanbali school, could reach different verdicts in similar cases. In 2021 the government announced judicial reforms to codify the law.

Royal decrees are the other source of law, called regulations because they rank below Sharia, and they govern labour, commerce and company law. Final appeal from both the Sharia courts and the government tribunals lies with the king.

The religious scholars, the ulama, have had a direct role in government that Wikipedia describes as without parallel apart from Iran. A council of senior scholars that once met informally under the Grand Mufti was formalised in 1971 as the Council of Senior Scholars, appointed and paid by the state. The ulama have historically been led by the Al ash-Sheikh, the descendants of Muhammad ibn Abd al-Wahhab, whose pact with the Al Saud dates to the eighteenth century. They backed the oil embargo of 1973 and the invitation to foreign troops in 1990. After the seizure of the Grand Mosque in 1979 the government widened their control over education and public morals. From 2005 their powers were reduced in stages: girls' education passed to the Ministry of Education, and from 2016 the religious police lost the power to pursue, question or arrest.

Where Saudis can vote

The only elections are municipal. The first were held between February and April 2005 for half the seats on municipal councils, the other half being appointed, and women could neither vote nor stand. In Riyadh registered voters did not exceed 18% of those eligible. Male-only elections followed on 29 September 2011, and in the elections of December 2015 women voted and stood as candidates for the first time.

Each of the 13 regions is governed by an emir with the rank of minister, appointed by royal decree on the Interior Minister's recommendation and answerable to him under the Law of Provinces, alongside a provincial council. Wikipedia counts 118 governorates below the regions. A National Dialogue Forum, where selected professionals and intellectuals debate national issues within set limits, has met since 2003.

How critics and the government describe rights

Freedom House's report for 2025 rates Saudi Arabia Not Free and says the absolute monarchy "restricts almost all political rights and civil liberties", relying on surveillance, the criminalisation of dissent and oil-funded public spending. It cites an Agence France-Presse count of at least 338 executions in 2024, up from 170 in 2023, at least 117 of them for drug offences, and records prison terms for criticism on social media, including 23 years for a cartoonist in October 2024. The killing of the journalist Jamal Khashoggi in 2018 drew criticism of the government from many countries.

The same report raised one of its scores because of legal changes that have eased women's access to driving licences, passports and jobs. The government's reforms include the right of women to drive from June 2018, and, in Australia's account, the dismantling in August 2019 of parts of the male guardianship system. Wikipedia adds that women may now obtain their own passports and that those aged 21 and over may travel abroad without a guardian's permission. In April 2020 the Supreme Court directed that flogging be replaced by prison terms or fines, and in 2022 the crown prince stated that the death penalty would be removed except for homicide.

The government describes its mass arrests of officials as a campaign against corruption. In November 2017 as many as 500 people, princes, ministers and businessmen among them, were detained, many at the Ritz-Carlton in Riyadh; in March 2020, 298 of 674 government employees investigated were arrested; and in July 2024 the Oversight and Anti-Corruption Authority, Nazaha, announced the arrest of 155 officials. Freedom House describes the campaign as continuing "without the benefits of transparency and due process", and Human Rights Watch asked in 2020 for the legal basis of each detention to be made public.

Religious minorities are a separate question. Minority Rights Group puts the Shia share of citizens at 10 to 15%, with some estimates as high as 25%, concentrated in the Eastern Province, and records at least 21 people reported killed when protests in Qatif and other eastern towns were put down in 1979. Public worship by non-Muslims is prohibited.

Who Saudi Arabia stands with abroad

Saudi Arabia joined the United Nations in 1945 and is a founding member of the Arab League, the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation; it co-founded OPEC in 1960 and joined the World Trade Organization in 2005. The Gulf Cooperation Council has its headquarters in Riyadh and the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation in Jeddah. The kingdom hosted the G20 in 2020 and is to host the World Expo in 2030.

Wikipedia calls the United States the most influential foreign power in the kingdom since the end of the Second World War. That tie strained after the Gulf War, when American troops were based on Saudi soil, and again after the attacks of 11 September 2001; Saudi Arabia refused to take part in the invasion of Iraq in 2003, and in 2017 signed letters of intent to buy American arms worth $350 billion over ten years. Since 2017 it has also built closer ties with China and Russia, and in September 2025 it signed a mutual defence pact with Pakistan. Britannica reports a further arrangement with Turkey and Pakistan, the Mecca Pact, reached during the war with Iran in 2026; its text has not been published.

The rivalry with Iran dates from the revolution of 1979. Since March 2015 Saudi forces have fought in Yemen's civil war against the Houthi movement, which has launched attacks across the border; Wikipedia gives 2,500 Saudi troops in the conflict in 2024. The armed forces numbered 127,000 active personnel in 2023, with 130,000 more in the National Guard, and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute estimated military spending at about US$80.3 billion, roughly 7% of GDP, in 2024.