The Limits of the Independence of the Constitutional Council (Administrative, Employment and Organizational Independence of the Constitutional Council)

The constitutional Council, as one of the constitutional institutions, like any other institutions, must have sufficient independence to perform its important functions; but the limits of this independence must be legal and envisaged by the competent authority. One of the aspects of the independence of the Constitutional Council is the approval of the financial, administrative, employment and organizational regulations of this institution. The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran does not specify which institution should approve these regulations for the constitutional Council. Due to this gap, the Islamic Consultative Assembly passed a law, all of which was approved by the Constitutional Council. However, in the following years, the Constitutional Council deviated from its previous views and finally, on 4/19/2007 in the interpretative theory No. 21934/30/86 and according to Articles 4, 91 and 99 of the Constitution, assigned the competence to approve financial, administrative, employment and organizational regulations to this institution. This article uses a descriptive-analytical method to examine the possibility of regulating the Constitutional Council in the areas of finance, administration, employment and organization. The finding of this study is that due to the silence of the constitution regarding the regulation of the Constitutional Council and lack of connection between the above interpretation and the mentioned principles, the general legislative competence of Islamic Consultative Assembly prevails in this area as in the past. It is also suggested that the approval of the internal regulations of the Constitutional Council be explicitly granted to the Islamic Consultative Assembly.