CASE / 1989–ongoing
Iran under the amended 1989 Constitution
Iran's formal allocation of elected, religious-review, leadership, and branch authority under the Constitution amended in 1989, current only through the stated review date.
DETAILS
What are the case boundaries and records?
Check the scope, related ideas, and institutional evidence behind the overview.
Scope, selection, freshness, and background links
Iranian constitutional authority after the 1989 amendment 1989–
Formal constitutional allocation and a bounded scholarly account of institutional conflict, reviewed through 7 September 2026.
Formal design
observation
Article 4 requires civil, criminal, financial, economic, administrative, cultural, military, political, and other laws and regulations to conform to Islamic criteria, with Guardian Council jurists judging conformity.
observation
Article 57 assigns legislative, executive, and judicial powers to separate branches while placing them under the supervision of the absolute religious Leader.
observation
Articles 91 and 92 establish twelve Guardian Council members: six Islamic jurists selected by the Leader and six lawyers elected by parliament from nominees of the judiciary chief.
observation
Articles 93 through 96 make the Guardian Council necessary to ordinary parliamentary validity and assign it review of legislation for Islamic and constitutional conformity.
observation
Article 99 assigns the Guardian Council supervision of elections for the Assembly of Experts, presidency, parliament, and referenda.
observation
Articles 107 and 111 assign the elected Assembly of Experts authority to designate and, under specified conditions, dismiss the Leader.
observation
Article 110 assigns the Leader powers including setting general policies, commanding the armed forces, declaring war and peace, making senior appointments, and confirming or dismissing the president under specified rules.
observation
Article 112 provides for an Expediency Council appointed by the Leader to address specified disputes between parliament and the Guardian Council and advise the Leader.
Rules in use
Interactions
classification
Arjomand observes that the Constitution retains popular participation and separate legislative, executive, and judicial institutions while subordinating those institutions to religious leadership and review.
editorial interpretation
The amended 1989 constitutional design combines elected offices and separate branches with binding Islamic-law review and extensive powers assigned to religiously qualified institutions; this placement describes those institutions, not Islam or Shi'a traditions.