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.