The Quarterly Journal of Judicial Law Views

The Quarterly Journal of Judicial Law Views

Party Autonomy in the Private International Law of Contracts

Author
Mohammad Javad Shariat Bagheri
Islamic Azad University of Tehran
Abstract
  It is widely accepted that a contract of private international law is governed by the law chosen by the parties. Nevertheless, the most general rule of Iranian law, i.e. article 968 of civil code, which has been adopted more than 77 years ago, provides for application of the law of the place where the contract is made. That is why in the silence of courts’ decisions the Iranian authors are divided to those who accept this mandatory “judgment” of legislator and those who try to interpret it in a compatible sense.

  So it seems that we need to re-establish the concept and the extension of the principle of autonomy of the parties and explain why the different legal systems adopted this theory. We shall try finally to explain why the legislator could not impose the rules contrary to the general principles of law.

  The main objective of this article is then to demonstrate that the determination of the law on contract is not an option among different options but a mandatory rule.

  Finally, this article tries to present a “principle-its” interpretation of article 968, emphasizing its necessary” reform”.
Keywords
applicable law on contract
law of the autonomy
Conflict of Laws
international contracts
article 968 of Iranian civil code
Iranian Law
lex loci contractus
- Fetze Kamdem, Innocent, (1999), L'autonomie de la volonté dans les contrats internationaux, Les Cahiers de droit, vol. 40, n°3,p.645-663,avalable: http://www.erudit.org/revue/cd/1999/v40/n3/043564ar.pdf. Document téléchargé le 3 juin 2012. 2- Foyer, Jacques, (1991), Entrée en vigueur de la convention de Rome du 19 juin 1980 sur la loi applicable aux obligations contractuelles, Journal du droit international, 3, p. 604. 3- Gutmann, Daniel, (2009), Droit international privé, Dalloz, 2009. 4- Kruger, Thalia, (2007), Étude de faisabilite sur le choix de la loi applicable dans les contrats internationaux, Note établie pour le Bureau Permanent, Document préliminaire No 22 B de mars 2007, Hague conference on Private International Law. 5- Loussouarn, Yvon et Bourel, Pierre, (1988), Droit international privé, 3eme edit., Dalloz. 6- Niboyet, M.-L. et Geouffre, G. de la Pradelle, (2007), Droit international privé, L.G.D.J. 7- Mayer, Pierre et Heuzé, Vincent, (2007), Droit international privé, 9eme édition, Montchrestien. 8- Neraudau, Emmanuelle, (2006), Ordre public et droit des étrangers en Europe, La notion d'ordre public en droit des étrangers à l'aune de la construction européenne", Bruylant, Bruxelles.
Documents and Sites :
9- L'autonomie de la volonté des parties dans les contrats internationaux entre personnes privées, Institut de Droit international, Session de Bâle – 1991, avalable at : http://www.idi-iil.org/idiF/resolutionsF/1991_bal_02_fr.PDF, seen : 3 June 2012. 10- Final Draft of the “Hague Principles on Choice of Law in International Commercial Contracts”, Report of the Third Working Group Meeting (28-30 June 2011), at: http://www.hcch.net/index_en.php?act=text.display&tid=49. 11- www.hcch.net