The Concept of State/Government and its Ambiguity in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution

The state/government is one of the most essential concepts that the constitution of every countrys is based on it. For various reasons, in Iranian legal texts, this concept has gained four different but intervowen meanings and this concept with its quadruple meanings have been used in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution causing ambiguity in the concept of state/government in the constitution. In this research, first, we consider the degree of ambiguity in using the concept of state/government in the different articles of constitution and then survey its ambiguity effects in the constitution. The findings of the research display that out of forty-one articles of the constitution wherein the word state/government has been used, due to the ambiguity of the concept of government or the possibility of presenting miscellaneous interpretations, eighteen articles of the constitution have caused ambiguity in the concept of state/government or the possibility of different interpretations cause ambiguity in powers, responsibilities or duties and limitations of some governing bodies in the system of the Islamic Republic of Iran. It is obvious that the effects of such a situation have appeared both in theory and in practice resulting in some complicated situations disturbing the rule of law.