The Journal of Human Rights

The Journal of Human Rights

Iran's Accession to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court: The Interplay of Ethics, Sharia, and Positive Law

Document Type : Research Article

Authors
1 Postdoctoral Researcher, Department of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.
2 Associate Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Administrative Sciences and Economics, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.
3 PhD student in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law and Political Science, Kish Campus, University of Tehran, Kish, Iran.
Abstract
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is founded upon a set of ethical principles, including the protection of victims, the fight against international crimes and criminality, the safeguarding of global peace, security, and well-being, adherence to the fundamental tenets of criminal law, and the rejection of morally reprehensible punishments. Accordingly, the Court’s nature, structure, and mission may be regarded as an embodiment of institutionalized morality in the contemporary world—a juncture where law and ethics converge. This study, by foregrounding the ethical foundations of the ICC, seeks to address a fundamental question: what conceptual and normative obstacles have thus far prevented Iran from acceding to the Rome Statute? Without claiming exhaustive coverage, the article identifies several key concerns as impediments to accession, including the perceived incompatibility of the Court with Islamic jurisprudential principles, the lack of religious legitimacy and validity attributed to the ICC, the potential erosion of national sovereignty and political independence under the obligations of the Statute, and the necessity of revisiting state practices and policies in light of membership requirements. Nevertheless, the analysis suggests that these challenges are not insurmountable. Through a constructive engagement between ethics, Sharia, and positive law, a viable pathway for Iran’s accession to this global forum of justice may be envisioned.
Keywords

Subjects


Bibliography
The Holy Qur’an.
Al-Khū’ī, Abū l-Qāsim. Al-Qadha wa al-Shahādāt. Vol. 1. Najaf: Al-Khū’ī Islamic Institute, [n.d.] [In Arabic]
Al-Khwansarī, Seyyed Aḥmad. Jam‘ al-Madarik fī Sharḥ Mukhtaṣar al-Nāfiʿ. Vol. 5. Qom: Ismāʿīliyyān Institute, 1985. [In Arabic]
Al-Muttaqī al-Hindī. Kanz al-‘Ummāl fī Sunan al-Aqwāl wa al-Af‘āl. Edited by Bakrī Ḥayānī and Ṣafwāt al-Sāqqa. 5th ed. Vol. 3. Beirut: Al-Risāla Foundation, 1981. [In Arabic]
Dabbagh, Soroush. The Ethical Imperative: The Transcendent Imperative. 1st ed. Tehran: Parseh, 2004. [In Persian]
Esmaeili-Far, Somayeh. “Investigating the Relationship Between Ethics and Religion from Allameh Tabatabaei’s Perspective.” Ethics Research Journal 4, no. 11 (2011): 129–160. [In Persian]
Fanaei, Abolghāsem, and Davood Nowjavan. “The Place of Morality in Legislation: A Comparative Study between Philosophy of Fiqh and Philosophy of Law.” Comparative Law Journal 15, no. 2 (2020): 267–305. [In Persian]
Habibzadeh, Mohammadjafar, Mohammadhasan Māldār, and Zahra Showkātī Aḥmadābād. “Review in Corporal Punishments in the Light of Re-reading the Rule of Coexistence of Reason and Sharia.” Criminal Law Research Journal 14, no. 1 (2023): 197–219. [In Persian]
Haeri, Seyyed Kazem, Abbasali Amid Zanjani, Abolghāsem Gorji, Seyyed Hassan Marāshi Shushtari, Nāser Makārem Shirazi, Mohammadhadi Ma‘refat, Seyyed Mohammad Mousavi Bojnourdi, and Hossein Mehrpour. “Iqterah.” Naqd va Nazar, no. 5 (Winter 1995): 10–79. [In Persian]
Hedayati, Mohammad. Ethics and Jurisprudence Dialogues among Scholars. 2nd ed. Qom: Islamic Sciences and Culture Research Institute, 2021. [In Persian]
Hosseini-Nejad, Hosseinqoli. International Criminal Law. 1st ed. Tehran: Mizan Publishing, 1994. [In Persian]
Jalali, Alireza, and Mohammadhasan Maldar. “Protection of Criminals’ Human Dignity in the Sentencing Phase in Light of ECtHR Jurisprudence.” Public Law Studies 24, no. 76 (2022): 247–275. [In Persian]
Maldar, Mohammadhasan, Abdolreza Javan Jafari-Bojnordi, and Seyyed Mohammadjavad Sadati. “Corporal Punishments from the Perspective of International Criminal Court in Al-Hassan Case.” International Law Journal 40, no. 69) 2023(: 145–177. [In Persian]
Mehrpour, Hossein. “Reviewing the Sharia-Based Obstacles to Iran’s Accession to the Rome Statute.” In The Islamic Republic of Iran and the International Criminal Court, edited by Reza Mousazadeh and Akbar Aminian, 401–435. Tehran: Strategic Research Institute of the Expediency Council, 2011. [In Persian]
Mirza Qomi, Abolqāsem. Jam‘ al-Shatāt. Vol. 2. Tehran: Rezvan, 2017. [In Arabic]
Mohaghegh Damad, Seyyed Mostafa. “Iran’s Accession to the ICC from the Perspective of the No-Domination Rule (Nafy-e Sabil).” In The Islamic Republic of Iran and the International Criminal Court, edited by Reza Mousazadeh and Akbar Aminian, 437–522. Tehran: Strategic Research Institute of the Expediency Council, 2011. [In Persian]
Mohaghegh Damad, Seyyed Mostafa. Jurisprudential Rules (Criminal Section). Tehran: Islamic Sciences Publishing, 2000. [In Persian]
Mojtahed-Shabestari, Mohammad. Reflections on a Humanistic Reading of Religion. 1st ed. Tehran: Tarh-e Now, 2004. [In Persian]
Montazeri, Hossein-Ali. Treatise on Rights. Tehran: Saraei Publishing, 2015. [In Persian]
Nobahar, Rahim. Islam and the Foundations of Human Rights. 1st ed. Tehran: Modern View Publishing, 2023. [In Persian]
Poorbafrani, Hassan, and Mostafa Afshinpour. “International Criminal Law Use Municipal Law for Justifying Grounds.” Mofid Journal (Comparative Law) 17, no. 85 (2011): 87–106. [In Persian]
Poorbafrani, Hassan, and Raouf Rahimi. “A Comparative Study about Torture in Iranian Laws and the United Nations Convention against Torture.” Judiciary Legal Journal 80, no. 93 (2016): 37–60. [In Persian]
Poorbafrani, Hassan. “The Principle of Universal Jurisdiction in International Criminal Law and Iranian Law.” In Criminal Sciences: Collected Articles in Honor of Professor Mohammad Ashouri, edited by Ali-Hossein Najafi-Abrandabadi. Tehran: SAMT, 2004. [In Persian]
Poorbafrani, Hassan. International Criminal Law. 16th ed. Tehran: Jungle Publishing, 2025. [In Persian]
Rasekh, Mohammad, Maedeh Taskhiri, Alireza Eskandari, and Fa’ezeh Ameri. “The Moral and Rights.” Legal Research Quarterly 22, no. 87 (2019): 19–48. [In Persian]
Rasekh, Mohammad. Rights and Interests. Vol. 2. 7th ed. Tehran: Ney Publishing, 2020. [In Persian]
Razavi-Fard, Behzad, and Mohammad Faraji. “Theoretical Analysis of Sharia Criminal Law and Accession to the ICC.” In Collected Papers of the International Conference on Legal Developments in Islamic Countries, edited by Firooz Mahmoudi-Janki and Jamshid Gholamloo, 594–611. Tehran: Mizan Publishing, 2020. [In Persian]
Roblot, Didier. International Criminal Law. Translated by Behzad Razavi-Fard and Mohammad Faraji. 1st ed. Tehran: Mizan Publishing, 2020. [In Persian]
Sadeghi, Mehdi-Reza, and Seyyed Ghasem Zamani. “The International Criminal Court Approach to Punishment Objectives.” Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology Research 8, no. 16 (2021): 79–112. [In Persian]
Saʿdi, Mosleh ibn Abdollah. Golestan of Saʿdi. 23rd ed. Tehran: Qoqnoos Publishing, 2011. [In Persian]
Sharafi, Abdolmajid. Islam Between Truth and Historical Manifestation. Translated by Abdolnaser Taheri. 4th ed. Tehran: Kavir Publishing, 2018. [In Persian]
Sharafi, Abdolmajid. Man and White Islam. Translated by Somayeh Sadat Tabatabaei. 1st ed. Tehran: Modern View Publishing, 2018. [In Persian]
Shariʿat-Baqeri, Mohammadjavad. International Criminal Law. 1st ed. Tehran: Ganj-e Danesh Publishing, 2023. [In Persian]
Ziaei-Far, Saeid. “The Primary Rule of the Novel Intellectual Conducts Authority in Non-servitude Issues.” Jurisprudential and Principled Essays 5, no. 4 (2020): 7–27. [In Persian]
Send comment about this article
Enter Name.
Enter a valid email address.
Enter a vaid affiliation.
Enter comments (At leaset 10 words)
CAPTCHA Image
Enter Security Code Correctly.