The Relationship between Program Laws and the Constitution

Abstract

In the existing hierarchy in the Iranian legal system, for many decades, laws have emerged that are known as: "program laws". The basis of these laws must be sought in an attitude that is imbued with characteristics such as "interventionism" or "guidance". The existence of such instruments, doubles the need to address their place in the Iranian legal system. Based on this, reviewing them and comparing these laws with the constitution is one of the central issues of public law knowledge that has been addressed in this paper and this question has been answered: what is the relationship between the program laws and the constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran? To answer this question, a descriptive-analytical method and library resources were used. The most important results obtained from this research are as follows: first; due to the lack of clarity about the place of these laws in the hierarchy of documents in Iran, we are forced to provide different readings of this situation. Second; by any reading, these laws, cannot constitute a constitutional restriction, because their relationship with the constitution is of the "longitudinal relationship" type, which inevitably puts them in a lower position than the constitution. Third; the constitution is the final indicator of the legal norm. From this point of view, one can not imagine an atmosphere in which the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran as the ultimate source of interpretation of programmatic laws is realized.

Keywords

• program laws
• constitution
• legal norm hierarchy
• constitutional guardian council
• development plans