Unwritten Constitution, A Forgotten Lesson of Ablofazl Qazi

The late Abolfazl Qazi, a professor of constitutional law at Tehran University, started a different path compared to his former counterparts through compiling constitution and political institution treatises. He translated two major works of Maurice Duverger known as Introduction à la politique (1964) and Sociologie de la politique (1973). Hence, Qazi's works were discrete from the works of others. In his new path, the relationship between constitutional law and political sciences were clear. He especially accentuated the complicated issue of an unwritten constitution. While being influenced by Maurice Duverger, Qazi maintained a distance in some issues. Duverger's methodology in constitutional law and combining its territories with social studies provoked criticism in French constitutional circles. Neglecting the drawbacks of Duverger's approach, Qazi put a perilous way in Iranian constitutional law, while trying to initiate the concept of an unwritten constitution in Iranian constitutional law theory. After three decades of compiling Qazi's treatise in constitutional law, his efforts need to be reviewed so that constitutional law theory would be able to renew such an issue through reviewing his viewpoints. Through criticizing and reviewing previous works, Iranian constitutional law is able to add up to constitutionalism tradition