Investigating the Status of Civil Disobedience under International Instruments, Shiite Political Jurisprudence and Iranian Legal System

Civil disobedience is an issue that attention has seriously been paid to and its scope has been discussed in recent years. In Iran, it is regarded as a new concern as well. Correspondingly, there have not been any significant studies in this respect. The theoretical weakness in this area resulted in conducting a more precise and comprehensive study aimed at developing the public law literature in this regard. Accordingly, the present article seeks to answer this question: What position does civil disobedience maintain in the Shiite political jurisprudence, and the domestic and international legal system? In order to elucidate these viewpoints, we have employed a descriptive-analytic method. Investigating the international legal order, it was indicated that these sources have provided some requirements for the states in codification of law and decision-making. That is to say, they oblige the states to respect the recognized rights of citizens and hold citizens obliged to obey the government which has fulfilled its duties. Furthermore, through providing various reasons, it was proved that according to Shiite political jurisprudence, criticizing and pointing out the mistakes committed by the government are regarded as not only a right but also a duty for the citizens and, under certain circumstances, this criticism can take place in form of civil disobedience. In the system of Islamic Republic of Iran, as well, by way of observing certain standards, civil disobedience can be considered as one of the aspects of the Article 8 of the Constitution.