Insanity as Fuzzy Conception

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Faculty of Islamic Law, Women and Family Research Institute

2 Ph.D., Student of Psychology and Educational Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Does "insanity" has the same meaning in civil and criminal law? For example, does "insanity" has the same meaning in "insanity defense" and “Insanity as a ground for divorce”? In Islamic Law, therefore Iranian legal system, insanity has a single meaning in all laws. In this view, insanity is a binary concept; if a person suffers from it, he/she will be subject to all the specific laws of insanes and if he is not having the chance to be insane, so he will not be subject to any of the specific laws. The main claim of this article is that this binary vision should be abandoned and the insanity should be considered as a quite fuzzy and relative concept. Accordingly, a specific mental problem or a specific degree of mental problem may be considered in courts as an insanity defense only in certain crimes. As it is possible to consider a person who is suffering from the most serious forms of insanity to be capable of concluding a binding contract. To argue the main claim, this article is organized in three parts; firstly, we explain a theory called " Insanity as Fuzzy Conception" and then present its fiqhi arguments. Finally (section three), we try to identify the implications of considering insanity as a fuzzy conception both in fiqh and Iranian Law.

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Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 30 April 2023
  • Receive Date: 06 September 2022
  • Revise Date: 23 February 2023
  • Accept Date: 30 April 2023