A Comparative Critique of Regulating the Personal and the Passive Personality Principles in the Iranian Penal System

A brief examination of various criminal jurisprudences in the world reveals that nationality is taken as one of the main bases for extending the judicial jurisdiction of states. In such cases, the jurisdictional bases for prosecution are in turn the personal and the passive personality principles. Yet, despite their widespread acceptance, regulating these two jurisdictional bases has not proven to be an easy task, if only for the encroachments that a wholesale resort to the jurisdictional bases in question may make into the sovereignty of other states. In this regard, the Iranian experience marks out many of the difficulties that law-makers around the world may face, when purporting to legislate on the bases for exercising extra-territorial jurisdiction. Another reason for viewing the Iranian encounter with the personal and the passive personality principles as a case of special interest is the mode in which the Iranian legislature has sought to adjust the application of the jurisdictional bases in question against the requirements of sharia law. By taking these factors into consideration, this essay will map out the successes and failures of the Iranian legislature in conceiving these two jurisdictional bases in the 2013 Code