Crimes against security in light of the principle of quality of laws

Document Type : Research Article

Authors

1 Associate professor, Department of law, Humanities and Social Sciences,University of Kurdistan, Sanandaj, Iran.

2 PhD student in Criminal Law and Criminology, Shahid Beheshti University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

The principle of quality of laws is one of the requirements of the principle of legality of crime and punishment which has gained more importance nowadays considering that criminal laws have become technical and false interpretations have got more common. This has urged countries with novel law to incorporate this principle into their laws and even some transnational adjudicating courts have ruled ambiguous laws as invalid and non-adduceable. Applying an interpretative-analytical method, the issue has been examined in this article. The importance of this principle in crimes against security, specifically in countries such as Iran, which has provided several actions under the title of security offenses is doubled as lack of quality in these laws and their ambiguousness, along with the necessity of subjective interpretations which do not necessarily comfort with rules and principles of interpretation, give rise to the violation of personal rights and freedoms. Finally, it was concluded that in many of crimes against security in the Iranian legal system vague and equivocal phrases such as hostile, advertisement against the system, disturbing security of the country, prohibited places, broad disruption, conspiracy against national security and so on have been applied which are serious threats to the violation of the principle of quality of criminal laws. Accordingly, it has been suggested to provide the principle of quality of laws, like the principle of legality of crime and punishment in substantive laws, which might be a hope for amendment of laws and omission of vague phrases in criminal laws.

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References

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Criminal Law Doctrines
Volume 22, Issue 29
May 2025
Pages 167-202

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History

  • Receive Date: 04 September 2025
  • Revise Date: 19 December 2025
  • Accept Date: 27 December 2025
  • Publish Date: 21 April 2025

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