ABSTRACT
Since its inception, the Socialist People’s Libyan Arab Jamahiriyah has been distinguished by its overt endorsement of its Arab identity alongside its unique political system in which, in theory, the people’s sovereignty is the source of political legitimacy. That Arab identity was at the root of the Great September Revolution on September 1, 1969 is evident from the contents of the Constitutional Proclamation, proclaimed by the Revolutionary Command Council on December 11, 1969 and issued in the Official Gazette on December 25, 1969. 1 The political system was defined by the Declaration on the Establishment of the Authority of the People in 1977. 2 In the eyes of most observers, the Mediterranean and the Arab world dominated the Libyan political and diplomatic horizon.
