The Concept of Territory in the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran: Geographical Frontiers and Doctrinal Borderlessness

Abstract

The concept of territory as "the geographical frontiers for political sovereignty and range of the state competence" is of eminent significance in the disciplines of political sciences and international law. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has been derived from the Islamic Revolution of Iran in which two peculiarities are prominent: introspection and extrospection.The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran has had an eye onto the geographical frontiers while passing through the political borders via ideological assessments. This article argues that the combination of political realism and legal idealism in the adoption of the concept of jurisdiction is affected by the atmosphere created after the Islamic revolution. Every text is influenced by its context: historical, social, economic, ideological, cultural, and so on. The text of the Constitution of Islamic Republic of Iran is not an exception to this rule. After the triumph of Islamic Revolution of Iran, a constituent assembly was founded by the supreme leader of the Islamic revolution in a popular electoral process. Assembly of Experts drafted a new legal text for the newly established political system. The author tries to test his hypothesis by the text analysis based on the proceedings of the Majles-e- Khobregan (Assembly of Experts).

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