This is an impressive achievement. In addition to providing us with a much needed account of Iranian criminal law and criminal justice, Khodadadi also develops the concept of theocratic criminal law to analyse the combination of religious beliefs, constitutional doctrine and politics that has shaped contemporary Iranian criminal law. This is an important contribution both to comparative criminal law and to criminal law theory.

Lindsay Farmer, University of Glasgow

Bahman Khodadadi's courageous, interdisciplinary, wide-ranging, and precise work uses a case study, the Islamic Republic of Iran, to demonstrate a theocratically based, yet formally modern legal system as an ideal-typical counter-model to the liberal rule of law. He shows what functions a theocratic and thus ultimately totalitarian criminal law, which aims to equate crime with sin, assumes as an instrument of domination and discipline - a great and important book.

Thomas Gutmann, University of Münster

A fascinating, historically informed, critical analysis of Iran's theocratic criminal law. Khodadadi explores its grounding in a theocratic constitution, and its uneasy relationship with ideas of human rights and the rule of law. He provides readers with an illuminating introduction to a criminal law that will be alien to many; he illustrates the political foundations of criminal law, and the different forms that it can therefore take.

Antony Duff, University of Stirling