Iran Colloquium: Codification as a Path to Reform: The Modernization of Iranian Law in the 19th Century

This presentation addresses how legal codification became a major solution presented by Iranian reformists to address the issue of social decline in the 19th century. Codification became a mainstream method of legislation in 19th-century Europe, aiming for the systematization and rationalization of law. In light of this, I examine how the European codification movement influenced the development of modern law in Iran during the 19th century, how positive law was situated with respect to religious law (sharīʿa), and how the rise of codification shaped the roots of constitutional thought in Iran.