On Theocratic Criminal Law The Rule of Religion and Punishment in Iran

On Theocratic Criminal Law explores the roots and structures of the criminal law system of the world's most prominent constitutional theocracy, the Islamic Republic of Iran. While discussing the processes of forced de-westernization and de-modernization which occurred in the wake of the Islamic Revolution, this work examines how the Islamic conception of civil order and polity has been established within the legal and theological framework of the Iranian Constitution. The book engages in a process of 'rational reconstruction' of Iranian theocratic criminal law and offers a critical analysis of the way criminal law functions as the centrepiece of this mode of political domination. It illuminates how this revelation-based, punitive ideology functions, how the current Islamic Penal Code (IPC) mirrors prevailing Shiite jurisprudence, and ultimately, from what sort of fundamental defects theocratic criminal law in Iran is suffering. This work provides a critical assessment of the criminalization and sentencing theories that have stemmed from the shariatization (Islamization) of all law in the wake of the Islamic Revolution of 1979. By embarking upon a typology of punishment in Shiite Islamic jurisprudence and the Iranian Islamic Penal Code the book then provides a systematic critical analysis of the three types of punishment stipulated in the Iranian Penal Code, namely ta'zir, hadd, and qisas. It also explores the jurisprudential principles and dynamic power of Shiite Islam not only as a driving force behind political and social change but as a force that has been capable of forging a whole theocratic legal system.

1 - The Emergence of Constitutional Theocracy in Iran: The Theological and Constitutional Framework
2 - The Principle of Legality in the Criminal System
3 - Discretionary Punishment (Ta’zir) in Islamic Jurisprudence and the Islamic Penal Code
4 - Prescribed Punishment (hadd) in Islamic Jurisprudence and the Islamic Penal Code
5 - Retaliation in Kind (qisas) in Islamic Jurisprudence and the Islamic Penal Code
6 - Totalitarian Domination and Big Brotherism: A Critical Analysis of Penal Policy as Derived from Theocratic Normativity

Bahman Khodadadi is an associate research scholar at Yale Law School, specialising in criminal law theory, Islamic jurisprudence, sociology of Law, and the development of Islamic law in the modern era. He pursued his doctoral thesis at the Law Faculty of the University of Münster, where he graduated with the highest distinction (summa cum laude). He is the recipient of the DAAD Award for 2016 and 2023 and is the recipient of the “Harry Westermann Award” from the University of Münster - an award that is granted to the best doctoral dissertation in the Law Faculty each year.