Qajar Iran and International Law: From Encounter to the Understanding of Concepts and Structures

Document Type : Research/Original/Reqular Article

Authors

1 M.A. Student in International Law, Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

2 Assistant Professor, Department of Public and International Law, Faculty of Law, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran

10.22059/jhic.2025.401176.654598

Abstract

The transformation of the international legal order in the nineteenth century confronted Eastern polities with a constellation of novel principles that unsettled the foundations of their traditional relations. Concepts such as territorial sovereignty, sovereign equality of states, non-intervention, and the binding force of treaties, rooted in modern rationality and a Eurocentric logic, operated as the common language of the emerging order and rendered entry into it unavoidable. Qajar Iran, situated amid political pressures, imperial rivalries, and diplomatic imperatives, was compelled to rethink its place within this nascent system. Adopting a historical–analytical approach, this study examines how Iran engaged these principles. The methodology rests on critical analysis of diplomatic documents, legal texts, and reports of missions and travelogues, including Sefaratameh, Heyratnameh, and the mission report of the Ajodanbashi (Adjutant-General). The findings indicate that Iran did not merely receive these concepts passively; rather, it acted as a conscious agent seeking to recalibrate modern notions in light of its own intellectual, political, and cultural contexts. Although colonial structures and geopolitical asymmetries constrained the scope for action, Iranian legal discourse gradually assumed a more indigenous orientation and began to articulate an autonomous legal identity within the new order. The study shows that Iran’s transition to modern international law was neither linear nor simple, but a complex, contested, and ultimately generative process, one that combined the unavoidable adoption of modern principles with elements of resistance and conceptual re-articulation. In this sense, Iran’s encounter with modern international law exemplifies a negotiated accommodation, in which reception, critique, and reinterpretation unfolded in tandem, helping shape a distinctive legal self-understanding within the global order.

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References

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Volume 58, Issue 2
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History

  • Receive Date: 23 August 2025
  • Revise Date: 20 October 2025
  • Accept Date: 15 November 2025

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