Jurisprudence of the judiciary is a two-volume book written by the late Ayatullah Sayyid Abdul Karim Musavi Ardabili and published in two hardcover volumes by the Center for the Compilation and Publication of the Works of Ayatullah Sayyid Abdul Karim Musavi Ardabili in  2012. The author’s excellent judicial background, along with his high level of knowledge, who was among the leading religious authorities living in Iran, make this book one of the most important books written on Jurisprudence of the judiciary. The following is a brief report of this book.

Book Specifications

Jurisprudence of the judiciary, two volumes; Musavi Ardabili, Sayyid Abdul Karim, Qum, lran: Center for the Compilation and Publication of the Works of Ayatullah Sayyid Abdul Karim Musavi Ardabili, third edition, 2012, hardcover.

Content and Structure of the Book

This book discusses Jurisprudence of the judiciary on the following topics: judgment, the conditions of the judge, the manner of judgment, and other matters related to the subject of judgment.

The book consists of an introduction and four comments, the introduction and the first and second comments being arranged in the first volume, and the third and fourth comments in the second volume. The introduction deals with generalities and concepts, which include two matters: In the first matter, judgment is examined in terms of vocabulary and terminology; and in the second matter, the governmental nature of the position of judgment is addressed.

First Commentary: Characteristics of the Judge. This comment itself consists of the following chapters: Chapter One: The Requirement of Adulthood and Reason in a Judge; Chapter Two: The Requirement of Islam in a Judge; Chapter Three: The Requirement of Faith in Judgment; Chapter Four: The Requirement of Justice in a Judge; Chapter Five: The requirement of being a legitimate judge; Chapter Six: The requirement of being a scholar; Chapter Seven: The requirement of being a man; Chapter Eight: The requirement of being a free judge and the issues arising from the first view, which includes several issues. In the first view, several issues are discussed, which are: The first issue: The requirement of permission; The second issue: The judge is a judge; The third issue: Litigation between judges of the right and the judges of the wrong. The second issue also includes several issues, which are: The first issue: The ruling on the succession of judgments; The second issue: The obligation to appoint judges by the Imam for different cities.

Second view: The manners of judgment. This view itself also includes several chapters. Chapter One: The recommended manners of judgment; Chapter Two: The disliked manners of judgment, which itself has seventeen issues. The first issue: The judge’s ruling based on his own knowledge; The second issue: The ruling on imprisoning the accused to modify the evidence; The third issue: It has addressed several issues. The first issue: The ruling on the judge’s own violation of the ruling;  The second issue: The prohibition of violating the ruling of the judge in cases other than those mentioned in the second issue; The third issue: The effects of the judge’s ruling. The fourth issue: The judge’s investigation of the previous ruling; The fifth issue: Complaint against the judge; The sixth issue: The validity or invalidity of the characteristics of the witness in the case of the translator; The seventh issue: The scribe with justice; The eighth issue: The verdict and justice of the witnesses; The ninth issue: The separation of witnesses; The tenth issue: The requirement of observing the offender and the witness’s justice; The eleventh issue: The collection of judgment files according to date; The twelfth issue: The alimony of the notary public’s scribes; The thirteenth issue: The donations of witnesses; The fourteenth issue: The subordination of the witness; The fifteenth issue: The entertainment of one of the parties to the dispute; The sixteenth issue: Bribery; The seventeenth issue: Summoning the plaintiff against him, at the request of the plaintiff.

Third opinion: The quality of the ruling, which includes several objectives.

First objective: The duties of the judge. The first task: Treating the parties to the dispute equally; The second task: The impermissibility of insinuation; The third task: The desirability of urging not to remain silent; The fourth duty: Encouraging reconciliation; The fifth duty: Observing the order between the parties; The sixth duty: Listening to the parties to the dispute; The seventh duty: Explaining how to observe the order in listening to the parties.

Second purpose: Issues related to the lawsuit. The first problem: Conditions for hearing the lawsuit; The second problem: The quality of determining the plaintiff; The third problem: Demanding the plaintiff’s response after the conclusion of the lawsuit; The fourth problem: Claiming against the judge.

Third purpose: The defendant’s response. Discussion one: Confession. Chapter one: Obligation to confess; Chapter two: Stopping the judgment on the plaintiff’s confession; Chapter three: The form of the verdict and recording the confession; Chapter four: Delaying the defendant after the verdict against him; Chapter five: Claiming incapacity by the defendant. Discussion two: Denial; Chapter one: The judge’s duty when the defendant denies; Chapter two: The plaintiff’s right to swear; Chapter three: Swearing a denial and its effect on the lawsuit; Chapter four: Rejecting the oath by the defendant; Chapter five: The effect of denial and the judge’s duty;  Chapter Six: Cases in which the claimant is required to swear an oath despite the existence of evidence; Chapter Seven: The necessity of having a guarantor for the recipient of the property when issuing a default judgment; Chapter Eight: The claimant’s rights if he has default judgment.

Third Discussion: Silence. The first issue: The effect of the claimant’s deliberate and willful silence against him; The second issue: The effect of the claimant’s silence against him due to damage; The third issue: The conditions for issuing a default judgment.

Fourth purpose: How to swear. Chapter One: Oath; Chapter Two: The wording of the oath; Chapter Three: The quality of the final oath; Chapter Four: The place of the oath

Discussion Two: The oath of the denier and the claimant; Issue One: The cases of consideration of the oath; Issue Two: The necessity of breaking the oath; Issue Three: Oath to deny entitlement; Issue Four: The transfer of the denier and claimant; Issue Five: The situations in which an oath to deny is proven. Eight issues: Issue One: Inheritance of an oath; Issue Two: Compensation of a servant if a claim is made against him; Issue Three: Failure to prove an oath in the hadd; Issue Four: Consideration of an oath to deny theft; Issue Five: Referring to evidence after the rejection and plea of ​​an oath to deny; Issue Six: Cases in which the claimant’s statement is accepted without an oath; Issue Seven: Cases in which it is impossible to reject an oath to the claimant; Issue Eight: The right of the heir to try someone who has filed a lawsuit against the heir.

Third Discussion: Oath in the presence of a witness. Chapter One: The permissibility of a judgment based on the testimony of a witness and an oath. Chapter Two: Cases of Judgment by a Single Witness and Oath. Chapter Three: Sub-topics of the Discussion of a Collective Claim by a Single Witness. Five Issues: Issue One: The Claim of a Maiden Being a Mother of a Child; Issue Two: The Claim of Heirs Based on the Endowment of the Estate for Their Own Benefit and Their Progeny; Issue Three: The Claim of a Descendant Endowment; Issue Four: The Claim of a Slave Based on His Freeing Himself; Issue Five: The Claim of Murder with a Witness.

Conclusion of the Third Opinion: Chapter One: A Judge’s Letter to Another Judge. Issue One: Ways of Overruling the Judge’s Ruling; Issue Two: What is Prohibited in the Case of the Judge; Issue Three: The Execution Ruling. Three Issues: Issue One: The Convicted Person’s Confession that He is Accused of Being Accused; Issue Two: The Accused’s Refusal to Surrender; Issue Three: Rejecting the Argument by Offering. Chapter Two: Regarding the Adjuncts of the Types of Partition: What is Partition, the Divider, and the Dividend.

Fourth Opinion: Chapter One: The Claimant. Issue One: The Definition of the Claimant and the Denier; The second matter: Conditions for listening to the claim; The third matter: The requirement that the claim be valid; The fourth matter: The claim of the ruler and the witness’s wickedness; The fifth matter: The claimant’s request for an oath from the denier; The sixth matter: The necessity of answering the claim of confession; The seventh matter: The requirement of discovering the causes of the claim. Chapter Two: Reaching the truth.

First purpose: Dispute in a property claim. Issue One: Dispute over an object in the possession of a person without evidence. Issue Two: Conflict of evidence. Issue Three: Repelling hostility. Issue Four: Conflict of claims with evidence. Issue Five: Conflict of the current and former owners.

Second purpose: Dispute in contracts. Chapter One: Dispute in the amount of wages; Chapter Two: Dispute in the rental object. Chapter Three: Dispute in the buyer. Chapter Four: Dispute in the seller. Chapter Five: Dispute in the number of sellers and buyers. Chapter Six: Dispute between ‘itq and bay’ and related issues.

Third purpose: Inheritance dispute. Issue One: Dispute between heirs regarding the time of conversion to Islam.  The second issue: The heirs’ disagreement about the time of death. The third issue: The claim of inheritance to an absent heir. The fourth issue: The disagreement about the priority of the death of the mother and the child.

The fourth destination: The disagreement about the child. The importance of the issue, the statements on the validity of the appearance, the evidence for the issue and the expression of the opinion of the author. The end of the book.