The conceptual crisis of law as the fundamental foundation of social problems in the legal-judicial system of contemporary Iran

Document Type : Research Paper

Author

Assistant Professor, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, Shiraz University

10.22059/ijsp.2025.398804.671330

Abstract

The concept of law in contemporary Iran is based on a fundamental challenge that indicates a kind of conceptual divergence; because the concept of law in modern perception is based on a humanistic and secular approach and has an autonomous nature. The source of law is pure practical reason, which, according to Kant, is independent of everything other than reason itself, and for this reason it is also completely independent of religious and revelation sources, and its dependence on Sharia distorts its autonomous identity. On the other hand, religious rules are completely dependent on revelation sources and their source is divine will, and their independence from religious sources calls their divine identity into question. This conceptual divergence makes the combination of two modern and Islamic normative systems in one society logically impossible, and therefore can be expressed as the root of social problems in the legal-judicial system of contemporary Iran; a challenge that provides the basis for numerous and diverse social problems and harms due to the incompatibility of the two divergent normative systems; Issues such as duality in social values and lifestyle, disintegration in the educational and judicial systems, lack of coherence and efficiency in the criminal justice system, and the identity crisis of Iranian society are among the most important issues that are rooted in the conceptual challenge of the law, and solving these issues depends on a deep re-reading and radical solution to this conceptual challenge.

Keywords

Journal of Social Problems of Iran
Volume 16, Issue 1
spring & Summer 2025
September 2025
Pages 135-150

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