The State’s Criminal Liability When Acting as a Sovereign

Articles in Press

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 PhD in Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor of Criminal Law and Criminology, Faculty of Law, Tarbiat Modares University, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

It is commonly assumed that the role of the State is to protect citizens from criminals. The problem, however, arises when the State itself abuses its power and violates the fundamental rights and freedoms of its own citizens. The notion of “state crime” is intended to make theoretical reflection on this very issue possible. Under Iranian law, based on the statutory text, the State may be convicted and held criminally liable in non‑sovereign activities. Nevertheless, this article demonstrates that, even beyond this, a textualist interpretation of the existing statutes allows one to argue—at the level of substantive criminal law—for the possibility of convicting the State for crimes committed in the exercise of sovereign authority as well. However, in such cases, due to the principle of legality, no ta‘zīr may be imposed on the State or the relevant public bodies. A criminal court, by holding the State accountable even in matters of sovereignty, may—on behalf of the political community—formally censure the State for committing criminal conduct against its citizens and symbolically stand against it.

Keywords

Main Subjects

Criminal Law Research

Articles in Press, Accepted Manuscript
Available Online from 28 May 2026

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