On Apr 16, Marzieh Tofighi Darian gave a talk on "Judicial Review in Iran: Whose Guardian: Constitution or Sharia?" in which she examined the role of Iran's Guardian Council in evaluating claims of sharīʿa compatibility and constitutional violations. She detailed the Guardian Council’s place in Iran’s constitutional design and the controversies that arise with Parliament … Continue reading Lunch Talk: Judicial Review in Iran
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian Islamic Republic of Iran has designed an elaborate and stringent system of Islamic constitutionalism under its 1979 Constitution. Not only does the Constitution aim at making sharīʿa the main source of legislation,[1] it also establishes a detailed system to ensure the enforcement of its sharīʿa clause. The Constitution has vested the … Continue reading The Duality of State Law and Sharīʿa in the Islamic Republic of Iran
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian In recent months, there has been a spike in the number of bills that members of Parliament and the executive branch have proposed and presented to Iran’s Parliament aiming at ameliorating laws that have historically discriminated against women and providing more robust protections for their rights. This paper looks at some … Continue reading Women’s Rights and the Guardian Council’s Barrier
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian Fundamental rights and freedoms constitute an integral part of most modern constitutions. To ensure these fundamental liberties are secured from government encroachments, most constitutions establish legal means to guarantee the protection of these rights. This paper argues that Iranian lawyers have weaponized Article 570 of the Islamic Penal Code 1996 to … Continue reading Protection of Rights through the Criminal Prosecution of State Officials
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian This post analyzes the self-proclaimed power of Iran’s Guardian Council to strike down previously approved laws due to claims of inconsistency with sharīʿa. In order to contextualize this problem, I analyze a recent opinion of the Guardian Council that nullified the results of recent elections, on grounds that a law legalizing membership … Continue reading Commentary :: Guardian Council and the Ultimate Power
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian This post argues that there is an excessive focus on sharīʿa-compatibility for legislation and judicial decisions in Iran. Even when a law enters into force or a judicial decision becomes final, there are still tools for the Guardian Council to legally invalidate the law or reverse the judicial decision. Assessing the … Continue reading Commentary :: The Problem of Nonfinality of Judicial Decisions in Iran’s Sharīʿa-Compliance Jurisprudence
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian This commentary traces the evolution of the right to counsel in criminal investigations in Iran’s Criminal Procedure Code, as highlighted in the process of drafting Iran’s new Criminal Procedure Code in 2014 (amended in 2015). I argue that the legislature missed a unique chance to address its long-time practice of ignoring … Continue reading Commentary :: Right to Counsel and the Problem of Distrust
By Marzieh Tofighi Darian This commentary analyzes the jurisprudence of the Guardian Council in reviewing Iran’s recently adopted Criminal Procedure Code 2014 (amended in 2015). It evaluates how the Council uses its authority in preserving and promoting sharīʿa and/or the Constitution and considers whether there are ways by which the Council can improve its work and enhance … Continue reading Commentary :: Whose Guardian: Sharīʿa or the Constitution? Judicial Review of Iran’s New Criminal Procedure Code
Professor Intisar Rabb and Iran editor Marzieh Tofighi Darian analyze changes made to statutes defining juvenile crimes and punishment under Iran's new Islamic Penal Code, passed in 2013. The Code follows a traditional dichotomy between ḥudūd fixed crimes and qiṣāṣ retaliatory scheme (which are directly incorporated from classical Islamic law interpretations of criminal law into … Continue reading Commentary :: Iran’s New Islamic Penal Code: Have International Criticisms Been Effective for Children and Juvenile Offenders?
In my last two posts, I identified the loopholes in the new Islamic Penal Code (IPC) that occasionally permit uncodified jurist-defined sharīʿa to override state legislation. In this post, I explore a new concept added to the IPC that has caused a great deal of confusion in the application of the Code: Ta’zirāt mansūs sharʿī … Continue reading Between Law and Sharīʿa: Taʿzīrāt Mansūs Sharʿī: A New Concept in the Islamic Penal Code or an Interpretive Error? (Part III)
