Principles Governing Family Court Proceedings in Islamic Jurisprudence and Law with an Approach Based on Imam Khomeini’s Views

Abstract

The issue of family court proceedings is one of the important discussions in the field of family law and judiciary bodies dealing with family affairs. It must be definitely claimed that failure to observe some principles in court proceedings related to family lawsuits may render rules and verdicts of family courts invalid. In this paper, we have tried to find an appropriate answer to this essential question: Are the court proceedings special for family lawsuits founded based on certain principles? In response to the above question, while investigating the sensitive position of the family institution through a descriptive-analytical method and based on rules and regulations, the efforts by the legislator to enact laws related to this important institution of the community have been hypothesized. This is, on one hand, to take into account various individual, social and family considerations, and on the other hand, to enact laws for sustainability of family relations. Therefore, undoubtedly certain principles must govern family court proceedings. The legislator has paid special attention to observing what is good for children, young adults and women according to the principle of expediency – which is a jurisprudential principle – and has avoided unnecessary formalities in family court proceedings in line with observing what is good for families and accelerating settlement of family lawsuits. Given close connection of family lawsuits with public order, the need for private session of court proceedings is proposed. Finally, referring all family lawsuits to arbitration is requested as a Quranic and jurisprudential principle. In the midst of discussions, we have reviewed Imam Khomeini’s views when needed.

Keywords

• formalities
• expediency
• arbitration
• private session
• private court
• specialized proceedings