Definition: The Coalition Provisional Authority, or CPA, was the Bush Administration's government for Iraq following the fall of Saddam Hussein and before the Iraqi government regained sovereignty.
The American invasion of Iraq began on March 21, 2003. The CPA was created on April 21, 2003. It was abolished when sovereignty was returned to a provisional Iraqi government on June 27, 2004.
Under the leadership of L. Paul Bremer, the CPA had full law-making and executive authority. Bremer signed 100 orders, 17 memos and a dozen public notices that had the force of law--and kept the force of law until supplanted by explicit acts of the Iraqi government. The orders covered a wide range of issues, from tax law to labor regulations to the controversial immunity from Iraqi law granted private security contractors operating in Iraq.
