Necessity of Legal Conceptualization of the Public Sphere through Criticizing Non-Legal Views With Emphasis on Criticizing the Habermas's Point of View

The concept of the Public Sphere (PS) and the works that are related to its recognition have not been discussed in Iranian law, especially the public law, to the extent necessary. This concept has been discussed and challenged in the last two decades with the translation of Jürgen Habermas's book in Iran. The existing literature in this regard is also influenced by Habermas's thought. In this article, the author, while examining the concept of PS from the viewpoints of Habermas and Hannah Arendt, believes that the Habermas' interpretation of PS is not legal and it cannot be the basis of legal investigation about the subject. Therefore, at first the legal concept PS should be defined in order to divide it from private sphere and determine the consequences. In this article, the legal concept of PS is taken into consideration based on the role of human's will in determination of a matter; if only an individual's will would be considered as the basis of decision making, the matter is interpreted within the area of private sphere, and whenever another person's will would be imposed on the individuals, the matter is considered within PS.