The Concept of Legal Adresses (Khitābāt-e Qānuniyah) of Imam Khomeini and Its Implications for Political Jurisprudence

The concept of Legal Addresses (khitabÁt-e qÁnÙniyah) is one of Imam Khomeini's scientific innovations in the field of Usul-e Fiqh or principles of Islamic jurisprudence. He has presented this concept as a part of the discussion concerning the methodology of legislation and issuance of legal rulings, maintaining that those instructions or messages which are not directed to a particular person and are general or universal have been issued with the intention of establishing a law not taking into consideration the power and knowledge as qualifiers for different situations of those people who are subject to legal obligation (mukallaf ) In fact, the ordinance is directed to the general titles postulated in the addresses. Since this theory enjoys tremendous importance and has far-reaching implications in legal studies, the article seeks to examine its important effects and implications in the principles of jurisprudence. Drawing upon descriptive-analytic method and referring to library data, this research has been conducted. The result of this study is the clarification of the implications of this theory in a number of important issues and topics of discussions in political jurisprudence such as ‘the necessity of taking measures to form Islamic government even when there is no power or authority to do so’ and ‘the priority of societal approach to security over the individual approach to security’.