Examining the Hindering Factors of Respecting the Law

Attending to the seventeenth paragraph of the ‘General Policies of the Legislative System’ on ‘Promoting and institutionalizing the culture of observance, compliance with and respect for the law and turning it into a public demand’, the present study seeks to find the answer to the following question: What are the reasons for honoring the law (respect for law) in human societies? The question requires attention to both affirmative and negative dimensions of the issue. In the positive dimension, it deals with the factors that including them in laws and policies can lead to observing and respecting the law, and in the negative dimension, it deals with the causes and factors that reduce the sanctity of the law and diminishes the obedience to law. In the affirmative dimension, factors such as the need to include the basic principles and moral virtues in the law, fair legislative methods and procedures taken by the legislator, proper implementation of laws and improving the quality of public administration were taken into consideration. With regard to the negative dimension, some topics such as the side efects of exteremism in praising the law, the penetration of authoritarian customs, and the lack of civil rights as factors in stark contrast to respect for the law are discussed