The Right to a Fair Trial at the Intersection of Constitutional and Criminal Law in Iran and Türkiye

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Assistant Professor, Department of Law, Faculty of Law and Social Sciences, Payam Noor University, Iran, Tehran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Public Law, Faculty of Law, University of Qom, Iran, Qom

10.22091/dclic.2025.13276.1093

Abstract

The right to a fair trial, as one of the fundamental cores of public law at the intersection of two key areas of constitutional law and criminal law, has been the subject of extensive structural and institutional analyses. A comparative study of this institution in the legal systems of Iran and Türkiye provides an opportunity to explore the theoretical, normative, and practical capacities in guaranteeing this fundamental right. The focus of this paper is on identifying the support mechanisms and points of difference or commonality in the application of fair trial in the two aforementioned systems with the aim of extracting adoptable models and designing a local model within the framework of Iranian domestic law. This research is written in an analytical-comparative manner, using library resources, legal documents and judicial procedures, and is organized within the framework of the theories of judicial justice, the rule of law and the system of procedural guarantees. The research findings show that despite the stipulation of the principles of fair trial in the constitutional and ordinary laws, both countries face institutional and interpretative gaps in the practical realization of this right. The Iranian legal system lacks an effective interpretative intermediary institution between the levels of legislation and implementation, while Türkiye, despite having a Constitutional Court and membership in the European human rights system, suffers from the problem of institutional independence and incomplete implementation of the Court's decisions.

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Criminal Law Doctrines of Islamic Countries
Volume 3, Issue 1 - Serial Number 9
Spring 2026
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Pages 72-99

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