Jurisprudential rules and their application in Family Law

Family jurisprudence rules are a set of rules that either form the basis of certain family law rules and regulations, or have a direct bearing on these rules. Family jurisprudence rules fall under two categories, general and specific. The term ‘general rules’ signifies those rules that apply not only in family law, but also in other daily affairs (mu’âmalât) and religious practices (ebâdât), such as the principles of ‘no harm’ (lâ dharar) and ‘no malicious damage’ (lâ haraj), and prerequisite /proviso. On the other hand, rules such as fostering and farâsh (marriage/intercourse), no harm and prerequisition (proviso) are merely used in family law and are considered specific to family law. This paper presents the most important general and specific rules and approaches and their applicability in Iranian family law. Some family law provisions such as ‘the right to revert’ (ruju’) and ‘divorce’ (itlâq baid min akhz bil sâq) fall under family jurisprudential law. The compilation of jurisprudential rules and regulations and the identification of their application make possible the constitution of judicial procedures in cases that lack letters of statute.