Legal Challenges facing Judiciary’s Protection and Intelligence Center

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Department of Law, Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

2 Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran

3 Department of Basic Sciences, Farabi University of Science and Technology, Tehran, Iran

10.48308/jlr.2024.237020.2785

Abstract

The Judiciary’s Protection and Intelligence Center which was established in 2001, operates with the aim of protecting judicial independence and establishing security within the judiciary. Although the establishment of this institution is based on the powers of the head of the judiciary in the constitution, but due to the lack of legislation in this field and the existence of legislative gaps, challenges have arisen in its activity. In this regard, the lack of publication of the center's statute and the limiting judicial independence as one of the goals supperted by the center to its organizational dimension and disregarding the independence of judges are among the basic challenges. Also, the dependence of the officials of the center on their upper managers and the mutual supervision of its officers and prosecutors on each other's performance are related to organizational weaknesses. On the other hand, the center's membership in the Intelligence Coordinating Council, contrary to the law of the establishment of the Ministry of Intelligence, as well as its activity as a judicial officer without the approval of the legislator, has fueled the suspicion of the illegality of the center's powers. Finally, the lack of clarity of the functional scope of the center and its conflict with other members of the intelligence community are among the functional challenges. This article emphasizes that these challenges threaten the legitimacy of the center. It considers the proposed solution to be the passing a law that is comprehensively written. So, it provides legislative recommendations in this field.

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 03 November 2024
  • Receive Date: 25 September 2024
  • Revise Date: 22 October 2024
  • Accept Date: 29 October 2024