Featured Documents
Supreme Court of Iran: Decision of the Unity of Procedure of the General Board of the Supreme Court (Opinion Number 834)
(Translation by Seyed Bahman Khodadadi)
Islamic Republic of Iran
Judiciary
Supreme Court of the Country
General Administration of Uniformity of Judicial Decisions and Publication of Deliberations and Opinions of the General Board
Subject: Decision of the Unity of Procedure of the General Board of the Supreme Court
Opinion Number: 834
In accordance with the supplementary note to Article 18 of the Islamic Penal Code and the provisions of Article 2 of the Law on Reducing the Punishment of Imprisonment, approved in 1399, it is mandated that when a court imposes a sentence of imprisonment exceeding the minimum penalty established by law, the court must provide a justification based on the clauses of this article or other relevant legal provisions. The philosophy underlying this law aims to mitigate the severity of imprisonment sentences, thereby establishing the minimum prescribed punishment as the baseline for sentencing.
Consequently, if a court fails to adhere to this requirement and imposes a sentence that exceeds the minimum threshold, such a sentence will be considered to surpass the legally mandated punishment. Under the final provision of paragraph "C" of Article 474 of the Criminal Procedure Law, approved in 1392, this situation provides grounds for the resumption of proceedings.
Thus, the decision rendered by the Thirty-Eighth Branch of the Supreme Court is deemed correct and lawful by the majority of votes, insofar as it aligns with this opinion. This decision is binding on the branches of the Supreme Court, as well as all judicial and non-judicial authorities, in accordance with Article 471 of the Criminal Procedure Law, approved in 1392, along with subsequent amendments and additions in similar cases.
Ibn al-Ḥārith al-Khushanī, Quḍāt Qurṭuba. Pages 7-8.
Edited by Julián Ribera. Contributions by Daniel Jacobs.
Supreme Court of Iran: General Administration of Uniformity of Judicial Decisions and Publication of Deliberations and Opinions of the General Board (Opinion Number 835)
Contributions by Seyed Bahman Khodadadi.
Popular Documents
Niẓām al-Aḥwāl al-Shakhṣiyya [Personal Status Law]
By Muhammad Zubair Abbasi
The Personal Status Law of 2022 (PSL) forms part of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 reform agenda.[1] The PSL codifies legal rules governing family relations, including marriage, divorce, child custody, maintenance, gifts, wills, and inheritance. While drawing extensively on principles derived from classical fiqh, the PSL introduces substantive reforms by codifying, clarifying, and standardizing rules that were previously applied through judicial discretion.
The law sets the minimum age of marriage at eighteen, while permitting courts to authorize the marriage of individuals under eighteen where they are deemed sufficiently mature to provide consent.[2] It further enhances women’s autonomy in marriage by limiting the traditional authority of the guardian: a judge may intervene to permit a woman to marry a man of her choice where the guardian’s objection is deemed unreasonable.[3] The PSL strengthens women’s rights within marriage by invalidating the practice of instant divorce (triple ṭalāq)[4] and broadening women’s access to no-fault dissolution through a judicially supervised reconciliation process.[5] It also reinforces married women’s financial rights by requiring husbands to provide maintenance irrespective of the wife’s financial standing.[6] In addition, the financial burden associated with wife-initiated no-fault divorce (khulʿ) is curtailed by limiting the compensation payable to the husband to prompt dower.[7]
Notes:
[1] “Vision 2030,” Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, accessed March 16, 2026, https://www.vision2030.gov.sa/media/cofh1nmf/vision-2030-overview.pdf.
[2] Personal Status Law of 2022 [PSL] art. 9 (Saudi Arabia).
[3] PSL art. 20.
[4] PSL art. 83.
[5] PSL arts. 109–11.
[6] PSL art. 44.
[7] PSL art. 101. Dower under Islamic law is divided into two types. Prompt dower is a sum of money or property that a husband is obliged to pay his wife immediately upon marriage. Deferred dower, by contrast, falls due only upon dissolution of the marriage, whether by divorce or the husband’s death.
Niẓām al-Ithbāt [Law of Evidence]
Contributions by Program in Islamic Law (PIL) Staff.
Muhafiz-i Namus-i Risalat
Contributions by Program in Islamic Law (PIL) Staff.
Featured Collections
Online Companion to Mālik's Muwaṭṭaʾ: Translated by Mohammad Fadel & Connell Monette (Harvard Series in Islamic Law, Harvard University Press 2019)
Edited by Mohammad Fadel, Connell Monette. Contributions by Daniel Jacobs, Rami Koujah, Ari Schriber, Cem Tecimer.
Online Companion to Justice and Leadership in Early Islamic Courts, ed. Intisar Rabb & Abigail Balbale (Harvard Series in Islamic Law, Harvard University Press 2017)
Edited by Intisar Rabb, Abigail Krasner Balbale. Contributions by Daniel Jacobs, Abtsam Saleh.
