The Concept of Law in the Age of IranianConstituationalism: Early Writers

The concept of law has been one of the fundamental, though controversial,concepts for early constitutional writers. This concept was discussed in acontext in which the absolute monarchy, on one hand, and the conservativeand traditional shari'a-based religion, on the other, had intermingled thepossibility of building and establishing the law in its strict sense withpolitical considerations and sometimes incorrect readings. There alreadyexisted two normative systems: the conventional system of the monarchyand its bureaucracy and the shari'a. The latter one of course had put forwardthe exclusive claim on the concept of law. In result, it seemed that the mostimportant problem in the way of building and developing the modern law inIran at that time was the very problem of relationship between law andshari'a. Early constitutional writers on the concept of law, however, believedin the following basic requirements of a modern law: humanly enacted,reflecting the public will and being flexible.Keywords: the Concept of Law, Constitutionalism