“Memory and Knowledge Studies” is a company registered in accordance with Egyptian law, established in 2021, through which we seek to empower Egyptian society with a collective memory about the history of the official justice system, both legislative and judicial, in Egypt. We believe that the justice system is not a stagnant matter, but rather it changes over the years, and its changes are closely related to the balances of social forces. These balances include those related to economic and political power relations, and the gender, sectarian, and professional structures that shape social relations in Egypt. “Memory and Knowledge Studies” announces the launch of the first phase of the “Thirty Years of Justice System Archive” series of reports. During this stage of the project (1990 – 2000) we seek to document and analyze the most important files and issues that occurred in the nineties in Egypt by issuing six reports dealing with the study and analysis of the ways in which the justice system in Egypt dealt with these files and cases, in addition to providing the most important laws, decisions and court rulings issued by the higher courts during that period, as we believe that documenting these issues during that time period will contribute to the history of an aspect of the lives of Egyptians, their interactions with the justice system in Egypt, and of the impact that those interactions had on shaping public life, allowing space for the formation of one or more narrative relating to developments during those years, the social changes that occurred, and the way those changes affected the lives and choices of Egyptians. We chose that period because it witnessed fundamental changes at the political and economic levels, both globally and locally. The nineties witnessed a rearrangement of the geopolitical map of the world after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rise of the United States of America as the only superpower, and the accompanying rise in the power of international organizations that imposed neoliberal economic policies on the countries of the Global South, which led to structural changes at the level of the national economy, which had an impact on subsidies, public sector companies, the conditions of workers and employees, inflation, etc. Based on this understanding of the context, we also hope that this project will help us understand the type of cases in which the Egyptians resorted to the judiciary, which reflects their convictions of the role that the judiciary should play as part of the authority in Egypt in order to bring them justice.

Today, we launch the first report entitled “Trial of the Privatization Path in Egypt: A critical review from an economic and legal perspective”. The report, which is part of the “Thirty Years of the Justice System Archive” series, includes two research papers. The first was written by Emad Mubarak, and addresses the legal and judicial aspects of the privatization process in Egypt since its launch in the early nineties of the last century, while the second paper, authored by Mohamed Gad, deals with the economic aspects of privatization in terms of its effects on development opportunities in Egypt, especially the industrialization process that had witnessed expansion with the establishment of the public sector during the Nasser era, in an attempt to assess the impact of privatization on the overall performance of the economy. The report presented and edited by Amr Adly.

This research work seeks to create a panoramic view that gathers legal, judicial and economic details and examines developments in Egypt since the launch of the privatization path in 1991, following the adoption of the economic reform and structural adjustment program, with the aim of understanding this complex multidimensional process, and its profound effects on Egyptian political economy and the quality of life of the Egyptians. Therein both researchers research academic and semi-academic literature that has accumulated in the study of the various aspects of privatization, building on many of the details contained therein, whether as regards the management of the privatization process and the corruption, nepotism and lack of transparency involved, as well as studying the constitutional and then the highest administrative courts as arenas to resolve political conflicts regarding a redefinition of property rights and the effects of an unjust distribution of wealth on workers and the general public. In view of what the current economic context presents, we can affirm the urgent need to form a broader and more comprehensive picture of the privatization path in terms of its origins and repercussions in order to allow the public debate to be reframed given the context at the current stage.