Comparative Criminal Justice Systems - Assignment Example

Iran lacked a unitary legal code like other legal systems until the 1906 constitutional revolution which gave the country its first bill of rights and constitution (Shahidullah 2012).

Revolutionary courts rule on matters of national security such as political crimes and drug trafficking and were established in 1982 during the regime of Ayatollah Khomeini. The Islam Republic passed another constitution in 1979 giving the judiciary independent power with authority to investigate grievances; enforce laws; uncover crimes; prosecute, punish, and chastise criminals. The head of the judiciary retains office for five years and has the mandate to administer the judiciary, draft bills for parliament and hire, fire, promote and assign judges(Shahidullah 2012, P. 35). Judges cannot be fired without a trial.

Judicial authority vests in the Supreme Court. The courts include courts of peace, public courts, revolutionary courts, and the supreme courts of cessation. The Iran criminal justice system is inquisitorial as exists in civil law countries such as France as opposed to the adversarial system found in common law countries such as the United Kingdom and The United States. The judge performs the role of an arbiter and issues the final verdict. In cases involving serious matters, the judge is assisted by two secondary judges while in cases involving the death penalty, the judge is assisted by four secondary judges (Shahidullah 2012, P.36). The public prosecutor is the one who is vested with the authority to file cases and tender evidence on behalf of the state.

Juries are recognized in the criminal justice system under Article 168 of the constitution and arbitrate in cases involving the media. Their power is limited because the judge holds the absolute power to arbitrate. All judges must have certificates in Iranian and Islamic law. The jury also steps in when the judge is overwhelmed by the number of cases at his disposal (Shahidullah, 2012). There are two types of judicial investigations in Iran: legal and criminal investigations. Legal investigations deal with civil disputes while criminal investigations deal with specific crimes.

The Islamic penal code asserts that failure to comply with a punishment for a crime is a crime in itself. Sometimes the judges presiding in revolutionary courts are political appointees who may not have a sufficient level of expertise or knowledge in the case. They may even have not read the case file of the case they are presiding over. Article 168 of The Iranian constitution provides that political cases must be tried in the presence of a jury in an open and public court (Tyler, 2007). The Law of formation of public and revolutionary courts similarly provides that crimes related to politics or the media must be investigated in the presence of three judges of the provincial criminal court and a jury.

There is no absolute definition of political crimes in Iranian law and authorities have relied on the loophole to exclude juries from trials in revolutionary courts where only one judge sits and delivers the ruling in a closed court (Tyler 2007, P.202).