فصلنامه پژوهش حقوق خصوصی
پیاپی 24 (پاییز 1397)

Protection of the foreign investment in a host state is one of the main concerns of international law in today’s business and economics world. However, the question of which investors’ conducts should be protected is subject to controversy. Since the occurrence of indirect expropriation depends on the understanding of the concept of indirect expropriation, we will explore the elements and components of this concept. In spite of numerous conflicting international tribunal awards on settlement of disputes arising from expropriation and its various forms, it seems that a solution should be sought by looking at the circumstances of individual case. This article aims to provide criteria for determining indirect expropriation by focusing on the attitude of the domestic legislator as well as the international guidelines and doctrines. In doing so, the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes(ICSID) and Iran - United States Tribunal cases are considered.

As the international sanctions against Iran were tightened between the years 2010 and 2015, with no clear reason or justification, some European arbitration institutions stopped to filing Requests for Arbitration and providing arbitration services to the disputes related to Iranian transactions or Iranian party(ies). From a contractual perspective, this refusal entitles the damaged party(ies) to request for compensation. However, to this aim, a number of assumptions should be first proved, i.e. the existence of a contractual relationship between the parties and the arbitration institution, the occurrence of damage and non-existence of an uncontrollable impediment (such as restrictions imposed by international sanctions). Moreover, considering the nature of services provided by arbitration institutions, the non-contractual liability of these institutions, as well as the possibility of violating the European Non-discrimination Law, are other important issues to be examined. In the present research project, the liability of arbitration institutions for providing services to users and the possibility of reimbursing the damages arising out of refusal to provide such services are discussed. The findings of the research project confirm the possibility of reimbursing the damages by aggrieved parties.

Criminal Procedure Code adopted in 2014 has affected the scope of moral damages and loss of profit from some perspectives. On the one hand, the extent of civil liability for any moral damages to injured party has increased. According to article 14 of the Code, the harm in both forms of loss of reputation and mental distress leads to the civil liability of injurer. On the other hand, the scope of recoverable moral damages and loss of profits, that is, the scope of civil liability of the persons has been sharply reduced. In cases where blood money is paid and the Islamic punishment is imposed, these two types of damage cannot be compensated. In this regard, the legislator has stopped up even further by stating that this type of damage is compensable when the loss of profit compensation can be equal to the destruction. Finally, based on article 14 (1) Criminal Procedure Code, the scope of remedy for compensating moral damages has expanded. In other words, moral damages can be compensated through pecuniary and non-pecuniary way.

According to Article 32 (1) of the American Trademark law, trademark infringement is commercial use with no permition of the mark of another in a way that causes likelihood of confusion to product or service, their origin or affiliation to that origin. The grounds of of realizationtrademark infringement in us include the existence of valid mark whether registered or unregistered and using of mark, being the use commercial, proof of likelihood of confusion. Also the Iranian patent, industrial dedign and trademark law, introduce the non permission use of anothers mark and accoring likelehood of confusion of the consumer, the requirements of civil liability from the trademark infringement and like lanham act, do not mention the negligince of defendant. However, studing the judicial perecents shaws that in iraninn law, existing of valid registered or unregistered mark and being the use of anothers mark commercial, is the realization of infringement. Unlike the American system, Iranian law does not mention the confusion arising from affiliation and confusion following such confusion, is considered under the false advertising. In compare with the lanham act, with respect to the irrelevance of it in confision of consumer, this is the advantage of Iran's law. In this paper, emphasizing judgements of courts of us and Iran, analyzing these elements will be discussed and appropriate proposals presented during the discussion of the project.

In order to deal with existing problems in relation to documentary credit and electronic documentary credit, International of Chamber of Commerce (ICC), in cooperation with Swift and ISO, strived to adopt a new payment system, called: Bank Payment Obligation (BPO). The main part of the BPO relates to data presented electronically to the bank by the seller. The role of the bank is to transfer the data to Trade Matching Application (TMA) in order to comply with the terms of BPO and to clear the payment. The purpose of the BPO is to minimize the risks associated with traditional documentary credit system, and to reduce the time and cost for examining data and proceeding with the payment. By conducting a comparative assessment, this article aims to illustrate problems pertaining to documentary credit problems by examining the limitations of the documentary credit system, and to discuss whether the BPO could address these problems. Although it remains to be seen whether the BPO could be regarded as an appropriate system, it would seem that the BPO may not meet the needs of international trade.

Research is considered to be one of the elements for development in all countries. Policymakers strive to improve and increase it in terms of quality and quantity. They also aim to manage results of researches. For this reason, governments, directly and indirectly, attempt to carry out researches and resolve society needs in some fields in which private sectors cannot or are not interested in investing and being active. Publicly funded research in developing countries is more common and most researches are carried out by public funds. Ownership and the method of utilization of research results are main issues in this area. These issues are important not only due to intellectual property, creators and innovators’ rights, but also due to the management of rights for the best economic result for the benefit of societies. This issue has been discussed in some countries since several decades ago and the Bayh-Dole Act has been the first and the most important Act that is related to intellectual property in publicly funded research. Many countries have regarded the Bayh-Dole Act as a model for adopting their legislation. This article discusses features of the Bayh-Dole. By examining Iranian law in this context, it also proposes the points which should be considered by Iran as a developing country

This article discusses Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) based on an assignment framework. Payment order in EFT is considered to be an assignment offer. If the Fund Transfer is considered on this basis, it must contain conditions for the emergence of an assignment and its legal consequences. In this respect, debt or credit as subject matter of this agreement is available in most cases of EFT, even if there is no debtor and creditor relationship between the issuer of the payment order and beneficiary. In terms of intent for creation an assignment, since the issuer is willing to transfer funds that is being holding by bank and there is no need for debtor’s consent and there is no fiduciary relationship between them, the legal relationship created between the issuer and the bank has to be interfered as an assignment. As regards consequences, by accepted this idea, the right of the bank to reject Fund Transfer order can easily be interpreted. Having said that, what a bank does on order after receipt of payment order should not be considered to be the acceptance of the offer, because this is a regular and preliminary process. Since the doctrine is not able to respond to some situations for Fund Transfer, including Fund Transfer to another account of the issuer, it has been subject to some criticisms.

The reform of the French contract law occurred pursuant to the Ordinance No. 2016-131 of February 10, 2016 implements the reform of legal regime governing contractual obligations and evidence. For the purpose of simplification of French contract law and in the light of its compatibility with laws on international contracts, this Ordinance makes major changes to French contract law such as reinforcing the role of judges for securing contractual justice and increasing the power of unilateral consent for the purpose of economic efficiency of contract. French contract law has a great influence on Iranian contract law and Iranian jurists in the context of the contracts. Commentaries on Iranian Civil Code have paid a great attention to French law, which led to a close relationship between French contract law and its Iranian counterpart. Therefore, this article aims to explore the effects of new French contract law on Iranian law