Note: Policy-making is neither legislation nor the execution of laws; rather, it is a discipline that gives direction and orientation to both. Policy-making sometimes requires that laws be formulated, apparently contrary to that policy, while in reality they align with it. Policy-makers are those who do not make decisions but shape them. Policies are sometimes macro and sometimes micro. In this context, the role of jurisprudential knowledge in policy-making remains ambiguous. Jurisprudence has so far been presented primarily as an institution supporting legislation, and little has been said about its influence in policy-making. Hujjat al-Islām wal-Muslimeen Mohammad Kazem Haqqani Fazl, in this exclusive note, discusses the role of jurisprudential knowledge in policy-making in the field of natural resources. He believes that, contrary to initial assumptions, the discipline of jurisprudence is never subdued by policies; rather, the relationship between jurisprudence and policy-making is mutual, with each influencing the other. The full text of the exclusive note by the director of the Contemporary Jurisprudence Encyclopedia follows from your perspective:
Policy-making, in its essence, is a multifaceted phenomenon; on one hand, it aligns with what is available and what is not, on the other hand, it seeks to fulfill the policy-maker’s objectives, and on yet another hand, it must take into account all conditions and obstacles while also considering the feasibility or infeasibility of implementing the policies. In fact, policy is a product produced by the policy-maker.
The discipline of jurisprudence, based on its historical background to date, has never assumed the role of policy-making in any subject; because jurisprudence is the knowledge of the acts of duty-bound individuals (mukallafīn), and throughout the history of its development, its predominant focus has been on individual and interpersonal duties. Even in cases where it has entered governmental issues, it has rarely encountered the phenomenon of policy-making and has mostly addressed matters such as war and peace and relations with other governments on a case-by-case basis.
Nevertheless, it must be noted that policy-making itself is one of the acts of duty-bound individuals and can fall under jurisprudential evidences and be subject to juristic evaluation. From this perspective, jurisprudence’s view of policy-making is a posteriori one; that is, it evaluates proposed policies from other institutions against jurisprudential criteria, invalidating or confirming those policies. And if it is to intervene in the policy-making process, its greatest influence can be in clarifying the boundaries of policies rather than direct participation in policy-making.
The influence of policy-making on jurisprudence is not absolute, and it is not the case that jurisprudence and jurists are purely passive in the face of policies and external events, such that someone could claim that the path of jurisprudential knowledge is determined by policy-making. The policy-maker, by posing questions and clarifying what is available and unavailable and their objectives before jurisprudence, partially determines the direction of jurisprudence, and the jurist will address questions that the policy-maker needs. Nevertheless, jurisprudence will also exert a reciprocal influence on religious policy-making; because policy-making, despite its diversity and scope, must operate within frameworks specified by jurisprudence. On this basis, it can be said that jurisprudence defines the scope of the policy-maker’s choices; yet it itself becomes engaged with issues that external reality has created for it.
In general, it must be said that the segmentation of policies—whether into macro, micro, or any other categorization—is, on one hand, subject to two intra-jurisprudential points and, on the other hand, subject to external realities. First, the objectives of religion in preserving natural resources must be identified, and then the collection of verses and narrations related to the domain of natural resources must be studied. Without such a study, any statement regarding the division of policies would be improper and misguided.