Teaching Comparative

Rule of Law in Iran

The author of this analysis (from 2005), Iranian Mohsen Sazegara was a visiting fellow at The Washington Institute when he wrote this article. He has been a scholar at Yale and Harvard since then.

He was a founder of the Revolutionary Guard and a government official after the 1979 revolution. After the war with Iraq and the death of Khomeini, he became known as a reformist. He published several newspapers in Tehran, all of which were shut down by the government. He applied to become a presidential candidate in 2001, but was refused by the Guardian Council. In 2003, he was arrested and left the country after his release. He now lives in the United States.

Lawful Crimes in Iran
By Mohsen Sazegara
June 1, 2005

"As this month's presidential election campaign gets underway in Iran, the Iranian government is emphasizing that the country enjoys the rule of law and elected government. In fact, both statements are false...

"The president... is not a particularly powerful figure in the Iranian system. Iran's true political power rests ultimately in the hands of the supreme leader... To whom does the leader answer? Does he answer to the nation, or to a body elected by the nation? No.

"The Assembly of Experts elects the leader... as a practical matter, not even the Assembly of Experts can dismiss the leader...

"The twelve members of the Guardian Council fall into two categories: the six clerical jurists, appointed directly by the leader; and the six lawyers, nominated by the head of the judiciary (himself appointed by the leader) and approved by parliament. All twelve the members of the Guardian Council are appointed either directly by the leader or by his subordinates and are obedient to him...

"In the vicious circle of Iran's current constitution, the responsibility for appointing and dismissing the leader falls on members of the Assembly of Experts. But members of the Assembly must pass muster with the Guardian Council, whose members were appointed by the leader. That explains why no member of the Assembly has ever said anything critical of the leader in public session. That is why the leader cannot be said to answer to anyone. Iran's constitution provides no checks or balances on the leader's boundless powers. Thus the judiciary, which reports only to the leader, also is neither accountable to the people nor limited in its authority...

"Articles 19 to 33 [of the constitution], in the chapter, 'The Rights of the People,' specify certain rights as belonging to the Iranian nation. On the face of it, this chapter resembles the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. But, examined more closely, all but one of the articles therein are qualified and include phrases like 'except as provided by law' or 'unless detrimental to the fundamental principles of Islam.'...

"Iran has a constitution and specific laws that, on close scrutiny, turn out not to be laws at all because they can be interpreted in any way to the advantage of the rulers. The rulers can undertake any transgression against the rights of citizens and against the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in the guise of upholding the law. And Iran holds elections that are subject to the manipulation of the supreme leader, who is unanswerable to the people -- meaning that Iranian elections have little effect on who exercises political power."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 8:40 AM