The Principle of Minimum Sentence of Imprisonment (A Comparative Reflection on Islamic Jurisprudence and French Law)

The approach based on the constitutionalization of criminal institutions is one of the most effective strategies for organizing the discourses aimed at safeguarding fundamental rights and freedoms of citizens against the state power. Aiming at alleviating the damage caused by unnecessary imprisonment and systematizing the Iranian judicial procedures in selection of this punishment necessitates finding a solution in this regard in legislative and judicial criminal policy-making levels. Doing so, constitutionalization of adopting the "minimum legal punishment of imprisonment" and recognizing this approach as a "legal principle" is one of the strategies that can play a pivotal role in realization of the foregoing goals. In this article, through relying on the principle of criminal minimalism, the way of applying this principle in the selection of imprisonment in Iranian and French legal systems as well as Islamic jurisprudence is studied comparatively.