Public Law Studies Quarterly

The Formation of Constitutional Guardianship as the Basis of the State in Modern Islamic History

Articles in Press

Document Type : Article

Authors

Mahdi Barati Ahmadabadi 1
Mohammad Mansouri Boroujeni 2

1 Department of Public Law and International Law, Faculty of Law  and Political Science, University of Shiraz, Shiraz, Iran.

2 Assistant Professor of Law, Administrative and Economic Sciences Faculty, University of Isfahan, Isfahan, Iran.

https://doi.org/10.22059/jplsq.2025.394605.3746
Abstract
This article explores the conditions for establishing political authority as the sole legitimate gateway to the theory of the state. A pivotal dimension of this inquiry—central to the jurisprudential debate between Carl Schmitt and Hans Kelsen—concerns the protection of the legal order as a prerequisite for constituting political authority. From Kelsen’s perspective, safeguarding the legal order requires maintaining formal coherence among legal norms, where each norm derives its validity from a superior constitutional norm. Schmitt, conversely, posits the sovereign’s political decision as the foundation for preserving the legal order (or constitutional guardianship). The study argues that the imperative to protect the legal order (constitutional maintenance) correlates with the Islamic state’s overarching duty: upholding Sharīʿa as its constitutional bedrock. Thinkers like Mirzā Nā’īnī, Abul A’lā Mawdūdī, and Imam Khomeini  engaged with these questions of authority-formation, offering discourses that this article reinterprets through the framework of constitutional guardianship. Without this lens, critical aspects of their contributions to constitutional state theory risk remaining obscured.

Keywords

ThThe Guardian of the constitution
Carl Schmitt
Hans Kelsen
Islamic state
Fiqh
Subjects

  1. English

    - Books

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    References In Persian:

    - Books

    1. Schmitt, C. (2017). The Concept of the Political. 3rd Edition. Tehran: Qoqnoos (In Persian).
    2. Abadian, H. (2014). The Historical Destiny of Thought in Qajar Era Iran. Tehran: Elm Publications (In Persian).
    3. Paulson, S. (2012). "Examining Kelsen's Place in Jurisprudence." In Pure Theory of Law (Introduction to the Problems of Legal Theory), translated by Esmail Nejatollahi. Tehran: Research Institute of Hawzah and University (RIHU) (In Persian).
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    12. Maududi, A. A. (1977). The Constitution in Islam. Translated by Mohammad Gerami. Tehran: Dar al-Fikr (In Persian).
    13. ------------------- (2010). Four Basic Terms in the Qur'an. Translated by Saman Yousefinejad. Tehran: Ehsan (In Persian).
    14. Na'ini, Mirza Mohammad Hossein (2020). The Threshold of Modernity (In Explanation of Tanbih al-Ummah wa Tanzih al-Millah). Edited by Davood Feirahi. Tehran: Ney (In Persian).
    15. Naraqi, M. A. (1994). Mustanad al-Shi'a fi Ahkam al-Shari'a (Vol. 17). Qom: Al-Bayt Institute (Ahl al-Bayt) for Reviving Heritage (In Arabic).
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Public Law Studies Quarterly

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 22 December 2027

  • Receive Date 14 May 2025
  • Revise Date 16 November 2025
  • Accept Date 08 December 2025

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