GENERAL PRINCIPLES OF JUSTICE COMMON BETWEEN CIVILIZATIONS

Hamid Reza Nikbakht

Dr. H. R. Nikbakht is an Assistant Professor in Law and the
Director of the International Office of Shahid Beheshti University in
Iran.

Under the above heading I am going to introduce some of the
main principles relevant to legislative and judicial functions in civilized
nations. This work will be an exploration of the ideology of some branches of
legal systems of some countries like Egypt, Italy, Iran, and Greece as
representative of four ancient civilizations, and/or generally speaking the
countries dominated by Western and Islamic civilizations.

The kind of the principles which will be dealt with in this
paper are chosen with special reference to Roman law and Islamic Jurisprudence
such as: ''Omnis Indemnatus Pro Innoxis Legibus Habetur'' = The presumption of
Innocence; ''Nullum Crimen Sine Lege'' = No crime except in accordance with law;
''Nulla Paena Sine Lege'' = No punishment except in accordance with law.
''Nullum Cimen Sine Lege'' = The non-retroactivity principle; Pacta Sunt
Servanda'' = The principle of sanctity of contract, or obligation to keep a
promise; The principle of freedom of contract, or the will theory; Freedom of
thought, conscience and religion, and denouncing the slavery. This work will
reach the conclusion that all of the nations under the domain of different
civilizations commonly have these principles as cornerstone of their judicial
and legislative determination, and the working philosophies employed by them are
identical and analogous to each other. Moreover, by these principles all have
the same purposes, that is to say, respect the dignity and utmost rights of the
human being and creation of justice, peace and tranquillity for the individuals
and for the social life of the people.