Some thoughts on the institution of punishment in the new Islamic punitive law

A very important issue in every judicial system is punitive law and punishments which are both devices to establish law and order in the society and considered as guarantees for application in other areas of law. It is important how to determine and implement punishment and it requires lawmakers to pay close attention to this issue. The institution of suspension of punishment is a modern institution in implementing punishments. Regarded as a Western initiative, this institution has gradually found its way to punitive systems throughout the world including Iran’s punitive system. Statistics indicate that the country regard suspension as a means of mitigation. This shows that regulations pertaining to suspension have not proved to be pervasive enough. Thus, the lawmaker has to change the existing laws to provide grounds for making more use of this institution by the courts. The aim of the present study is to investigate regulations of the institution of suspension of punishment in the new Islamic punitive law. The methodology is analytic-descriptive and the data are gathered from the library. The results of the present study reveals that this institution can only be used by the judge for Tazir crimes of third to eighth degree despite its importance in individualizing punishment and rehabilitation of offenders and there is no possibility for the enforcement of law in other offences.