Judicial system of Iran
| Judicial system of Iran قوه قضاییه جمهوری اسلامی ایران |
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| Established | 1905 |
| Country | Islamic Republic of Iran |
| Location | Tehran |
| Composition method | Supreme Leader selection with Judges approval |
| Authorized by | Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran |
| Judge term length | 5 years |
| Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Sadeq Larijani |
| Since | 30 June 2009 |
| Deputy Chief Justice | |
| Currently | Gholam-Hossein Mohseni-Eje'i |
| Since | 23 August 2014 |
A nationwide judicial system in Iran was first implemented and established by Abdolhossein Teymourtash under Reza Shah, with further changes during the second Pahlavi era.
After the 1979 overthrow of the Pahlavi dynasty by the Islamic Revolution, the system was greatly altered. The legal code is now based on Islamic law or sharia, although many aspects of civil law have been retained, and it is integrated into a civil law legal system. According to the constitution of the Islamic Republic, the judiciary in Iran "is an independent power". The entire legal system—"from the Supreme Court to regional courts, all the way down to local and revolutionary courts"—is under the purview of the Ministry of Justice, but in addition to a Minister of Justice and head of the Supreme Court, there is also a separate appointed Head of the Judiciary. Parliamentary bills pertaining to the constitution are vetted by the Council of Guardians.
According to one scholar, the administration of justice in Islamic Iran has been until recent times
a loosely sewn and frequently resewn patchwork of conflicting authority in which the different and sometimes conflicting sources for Islamic law - the jurists, the actual judges, and the non-Islamic law officials of the king - disputed with each other over the scope of their jurisdictions....
some aspects of the law always remained in the hands of the mullahs ... The village mullah was the natural arbiter in matters of marriage, divorce, and inheritance; and the exalted jurisconsult, in order to carry out the very function for which he was exalted, gave opinions on those matters of law on which he was consulted. In between the village mullah and the jurisconsult there were mullahs with courts which, while sometimes sanctioned by the royal government, depended for their power on the prestige of the presiding mullah judge as much or more than on the government's sanction
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Wikipedia