Guardian Council's Ethical Approaches to Interpreting the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran Concerning the Citizens’ Rights and Freedoms

Achieving the goals and ideals of the Constitution is the result of implementing the provisions of the Constitution, which requires its interpretation where the provisions of the Constitution are ambiguous, concise, conflicting, or flawed and silent. Various approaches have been proposed regarding interpretation in the science of law and on this basis, the interpretation of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran can be done from different formal and substantive aspects. The practice of Guardian Council as the interpreter of the Constitution can be classified into three ethical approaches of egoism, deontological ethics, and rule utilitarianism. In the egoism interpretive approach, morality depends on the evaluation of results and achievements to the benefit of the person or organization, in which the norms of the Constitution are threatened. However, in deontological ethics, the Council considers it as its duty to guarantee the rights and freedoms of each citizen regardless of the results and benefits of restricting them. However, in rule utilitarianism, the Council does not put the utility directly into practice, instead it introduces some rules through it whose public acceptance leads to the maximum public good. Indeed, this approach can lead to a stronger and more enforced law and ultimately to the efficiency of the system.