University of Tehran Public Law Studies Quarterly 2423-8120 47 2 2017 06 22 A Study of the Relationship between Legal Hermeneutics and the Interpretive Judgements of the Guardian Council A Study of the Relationship between Legal Hermeneutics and the Interpretive Judgements of the Guardian Council 377 410 63103 10.22059/jplsq.2017.63103 FA Kheyrollah Parvin Professor Public and International Law Department, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University OF Tehran, Tehran, Iran 0000-0003-3529-1453 Behnam Mobasseri MA. Student in Public Law, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran Journal Article 2016 05 27 Hermeneutics is the art of comprehension and the science of interpretation. Fundamental changes toward hermeneutical have prevented from a creation of comprehensive definition for hermeneutics. Basically, approaches toward hermeneutics is a threefold: specific, general and philosophical. The classic or general hermeneutics presumes a fixed meaning for the text and tries to find out the intention of the writer. However, in the philosophical hermeneutics, the text does not necessarily refer to a fixed meaning. This is due to the unlimited real meanings of one text, none of which has priority over the others. The classic hermeneutics has a close relationship with the topic of Terms (<em>Alfaaz</em>) in the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (<em>Figh’</em>). On the other hand, the theoretical foundations of the philosophical hermeneutics are mostly inconsistent with the opinions of the Islamic scholars. Hermeneutics is the science of understanding the texts which are interpretable according to the nature of their subject matter. The laws are also in need of being interpreted in case of their ambiguity, deficiency or silence of the legislator. Hence, interpretation of the legal texts is considered as a branch of hermeneutics named as legal hermeneutics. The Constitution is not­ exceptional; its interpretation is specifically assigned to the Guardian Council. The Guardian Council is a legal authority with legal-jurisprudential tendencies that in its capacity as the interpreter of the Constitution, tries to discover the legislator’s intention through the principles of Shia Jurisprudence. Therefore, only those hermeneutical tendencies that believe in a fixed meaning of the text can be evaluated by the interpretive judgments of the Guardian Council; the philosophical hermeneutics which is based on a changeable understanding of a text cannot be implemented in the Council’s interpretive judgments. Hermeneutics is the art of comprehension and the science of interpretation. Fundamental changes toward hermeneutical have prevented from a creation of comprehensive definition for hermeneutics. Basically, approaches toward hermeneutics is a threefold: specific, general and philosophical. The classic or general hermeneutics presumes a fixed meaning for the text and tries to find out the intention of the writer. However, in the philosophical hermeneutics, the text does not necessarily refer to a fixed meaning. This is due to the unlimited real meanings of one text, none of which has priority over the others. The classic hermeneutics has a close relationship with the topic of Terms (<em>Alfaaz</em>) in the principles of Islamic Jurisprudence (<em>Figh’</em>). On the other hand, the theoretical foundations of the philosophical hermeneutics are mostly inconsistent with the opinions of the Islamic scholars. Hermeneutics is the science of understanding the texts which are interpretable according to the nature of their subject matter. The laws are also in need of being interpreted in case of their ambiguity, deficiency or silence of the legislator. Hence, interpretation of the legal texts is considered as a branch of hermeneutics named as legal hermeneutics. The Constitution is not­ exceptional; its interpretation is specifically assigned to the Guardian Council. The Guardian Council is a legal authority with legal-jurisprudential tendencies that in its capacity as the interpreter of the Constitution, tries to discover the legislator’s intention through the principles of Shia Jurisprudence. Therefore, only those hermeneutical tendencies that believe in a fixed meaning of the text can be evaluated by the interpretive judgments of the Guardian Council; the philosophical hermeneutics which is based on a changeable understanding of a text cannot be implemented in the Council’s interpretive judgments. https://jplsq.ut.ac.ir/article_63103_99ccfa573c5d24932bff3098e68b5994.pdf