Administrative enforcement authority and the regulation of urban land uses

The administrative enforcement authority in Iraq can be considered as one of the most important jobs in the state that aims to maintain the public order, keep the peace and protect communities. The protection includes both elements of the traditional public order -public security, public health, public tranquility and public morals, along protecting its modern elements i.e., protecting the environment and the aesthetic of cities. the administration seeks to achieve that through imposing procedures and controls such as prior licensing in construction and preventing encroaching of public property.
Building permits are one of the legal tools for controlling the construction of buildings, because through them the relevant administrative authorities simplify their control over the construction. The importance of the research lies in that it is closely related to the life and safety of individuals and society, and the intervention of the administration here is to find a kind of balance between the freedom of individuals in building and respect for the rules of urban planning on the one hand and the administrative authority, which is represented by a set of restrictions imposed on the applicant for licensing through the imposition of rules and technical controls for construction And safety conditions and rules for maintaining public order in order to ensure urban development and to avoid random settlements that have emerged rapidly in the form of overtaking on state lands in all of Iraq after 2003. The research also aims to shed light on the building related laws, the Municipalities Law No. 13 of 2001, and the Environmental Protection and Improvement Law No. 27 of 2007. The research problem lies in the lack of an integrated legal system for building permits in Iraq, as well as an increase in informal settlements due to the poor control of the specialized administrative agencies. For this reason, this paper is divided into two sections. Section 1 deals with administrative control in the field of construction, and section 2 discusses building permit provisions and penalties for breaching such permits.