Textualist Approach in Legal Interpretation: with Emphasis on Islamic Republic of Iran Constitution

Abstract

Because of linguistic ambiguity, silence, contradiction of contents and executive or moral issues, the interpretation of legal texts becomes inevitable. Traditionally, statutory and constitutional theories of interpreting are appeared in two forms: writer- based and interpreter- based. Despite their advantages, these approaches suffer from problems preventing them to be the exclusive theory of legal interpretation in Iran. On the other hand, the third approach – Textualism- can be considered as the most complete theory in interpreting the Constitution and statutes. Textualism considers legal systems as self- complete entity, and is compatible with the results of linguistic analysis of law. This approach seeks to find the answer of legal questions from legal texts, not meta- legal standards. Textualist reading of Principle 73 of I.R.I.’s Constitution and Guardian Councils’ interpretation implies that interpreters are allowed to have their own interpretation of legal texts which are valid, until the modification of the law or rendering a formal interpretation.

Keywords

• legal interpretation
• linguistic ambiguity
• self- completeness of law
• textualism
• principle 73 of i.r.irans` constitution