The Scope of the Authority of the Judge in the Exercise of Punishment According to Penal Code 1392

The jurists have divided the Islamic punishments to variable and fixed punishments. On this basis, hudud, death (qisas) and blood money penalties are deemed to be fixed and discretionary punishments (tazir) are categorized in the second group.  The general principle in Tazir punishments is the individualization of the punishment. Therefore, according to the rule "Al-ta'zir bema yarah al-Hakim (penalties issued under of the discretion judges)", the judges have considerable authority in the exercise of punishments based on their discretions and expediency. The power of the judges to apply punishment is not confined to the jurisprudence, but also to the substantive positive law where the judge has also a considerable authority to enforce these types of discretionary punishments. For a precise understanding of this issue, it is necessary to answer a few questions:  What does the above principle mean by the word "ruler"?  How much is the authority range of the judge and what are the existing mechanisms in the exercise of judicial authority? In this paper, along with the recognition of the authority of judges in the exercise of discretionary punishments, concepts such as the judge and the scope of his authority and mechanisms for the exercise of authority according to the positive law and jurisprudence would be studied.