The Philosophy of Contract Enforceability: A Comparative Study in the Common Law and Iranian Law

Abstract

One of the main questions in contract theory is the justification of the binding nature of contract; That why the legislator intervenes in this private field and determines some sanctions and remedies. In response to this challenge, in the common law three major theories have been offered: moral theory, economic theory and the rule of will theory. In Iranian law, legal scholars have based their theories on moral, social, economic and religious grounds. This article, while examining and evaluating these theories with an analytical-descriptive method, despite the support of most Iranian legal writers for theories based on social interests, defends the principle of autonomy of will and claims that other values can be unified with this principle. The main idea of ​​this article is that the most important and direct goal of the legislator from enforcing contracts should be to enforce the cooperative will of the parties to the contract, which is in line with supporting the higher value of autonomy. Also, efficiency as an economic value is included under autonomy and as an instrument plays a central role in formulating detailed regulations and the structure and how to support the contract.

Keywords

• contractual enforceability
• enforcement of cooperative will
• autonomy
• efficiency
• contract as a promise