A Study of the Competent Jurisdiction Regarding Claims Relating to the Legal Status of Iranian Religious Minorities

The application of relevant religious rules to Iranian minority groups dates back to the early days of legislation in Iran. Nonetheless, in a recent step, the Iranian Parliament vested the ‘highest religious jurisdictions’ of minorities with judicial competence to be decided in cases of personal status. This paper studies different aspects of this unprecedented provision. Not only this innovative law would, at last analysis, contradict the Iranian Constitution, but also several issues of interpretive and practical character will arise. This paper provides Iranian courts with two guidelines on how to deal with the new provision. First, the new provision shall be interpreted in a way not to restrict the general competence of courts to hear cases of personal status of non-Shiite Period Secondly, courts are advised not to give effect to decisions rendered by religious authorities unless they meet, mutatis mutandis, rigorous conditions of recognition, and enforcement of foreign judgments.