Iran's reformist-dominated parliament launched a wide-ranging review of the country's legal system Saturday, with a commission studying all laws passed since the 1979 Islamic revolution.
The commission will "look at and reconsider all laws ... to determine which are futile laws and propose new laws that conform with society's needs," said Gholamali Abedi, an MP who is heading the review.
The commission also includes three judges and three magistrates.
Abedi said the commission was agreed to by the parliament's moderate speaker, Mehdi Karubi, and the hardline head of the judiciary, Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi-Shahroudi.
"The commission will make proposals and submit them to the parliament," Abedi said, cited by state radio.
Since the 1979 Islamic revolution, Iran's legal system has been governed by Sharia religious law.
In 1994, Iran started to reform the judiciary, replacing a myriad of jurisdictions with a system of "general tribunals" that sought -- largely unsuccessfully -- to simplify and speed up the judicial process.
Iranian reformists have been emboldened since 1997, when pro-reform President Mohammad Khatami was elected, and have accused the conservative judiciary of exercising excessive power -- TEHRAN (AFP)
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