Dear Readers,

As every International trader, producer or Company intends to have commercial relationship with another country’s traders so they could sell goods or provide services, so it is necessary to have information about  applicable laws of that country. I, Amir Azarbad, an Iranian Attorney at law, think it is better to give some information on general applicable laws and regulations in Iran. I hope it is useful for you.

Iran, like other countries ,has a mother code for trade law. this Act consist of sections concerning traders, Commercial Activities,  Commercial Books including day-book and other types of books traders( individuals and companies) is obliged to have, Companies, commercial documents including bill of exchange-promissory note-check, commission,  Transportation contract, commercial agents, Guarantee and at the end Bankruptcy. this Act is so like to previous Commercial Act of France.

Articles 21 to 93 of this Act has bee replaced with ” Draft of amendment to a part of Commercial Act” which approved more than 40 years ago, but this Draft is Act for  Join-stock Companies.

The Act of Commercial Act of Iran, is very old and needs to be amended. in this Act there is not section on contracts. so, the contract, including commercial or civil, is applied by Civil Act of Iran. for more details about effect of local laws you can see my Article about “reflection of local laws on international commercial contracts”

the link for this Article: http://en.lawoffices.ir/lawyer-specializing-in-domestic-and-international-contracts/

so, should you know about contracts, you will have to refer to Civil Act. we do not have special court for commercial cases like France, so, every cases( not criminal or official) are referred to the courts which accept another civil cases.

This years, many attempt has done to establish special commercial codes with special procedure Act.

of course, we have Arbitration Tribunals like ACIC. so, if you mention an arbitration clause

in your contract, you will sure that your case will be referred to the Arbitration(Tribunal or ad hoc).

addition to these Act, we have lot of regulation on Registration of companies, Bank’s Act,Patents, Industrial Designs and Trademarks Registration Act (2008), Foreign Investment Promotion and Protection Act and many laws and regulation on Commercial issues. in every part of commercial issue, there is general(Civil Act & Commerce Act) and also specific Acts and Regulations. for example to import goods, there is Customs Affairs Act, INCOTERMS, obligatory regulation of Ministry of industry- mine and trade, The Law in combat in  Smuggling of Goods and Currency.

In next posts, I’ll give more information about Iran’s law to you esteemed readers. you are going to have list of Iran’s commercial Acts & Regulations in this website.

One of the regulations which every trader like to see, is Arbitration Rules. as you know, many traders like to refer their cases disputes to a non-government court. hence, development of arbitration in a country shows proper situation of trade in that country.

Fortunately, Arbitration law has developed  in Iran. Iran has Specific law in International Arbitration and also jointed to Convention on the recognition and enforcement of foreign arbitral awards ( New York, 1958). so, Foreign traders can trust Arbitration in Iran.

Attorney at law in Iran-Tehran(member of Iran- Central Bar Association)

Commercial Attorney in Iran, Amir Azarbad.