Fundamentals of Timely Obligation Enforcement in Islamic and Iranian Laws

In our legal system, the “Timely Obligation Enforcement”, as the first guarantee to protect the parties’ rights against violation of a contract, cannot meet the community’s legal and economic demands since the obligee is obliged to make a request and since changes have occurred in the legal fundamentals as well as social and economic conditions. Law is the collection of rules for life in the society and it cannot be indifferent to the needs and demands of the life. Therefore, it is a need to be farsighted enough to understand the time requirements so that good and bad acts play important roles in enacting, interpreting and enforcing the rules of law. On this basis, our legal system should take steps in tandem with international documents and advanced legal systems in the world in terms of enacting and enforcing the Timely Obligation Enforcement, and accordingly, accept parallel nature of mechanisms for defense against violation of contracts. The solution for access to this option in our legal system lies in making Timely Obligation Enforcement optional by the obligee. Admission of this option to our legal system is not contradictory with jurisprudential history and traditional legal backbone of the society. Furthermore, due to gradual development of this principle in our legal system and the history of theorization in Islamic law, and by virtue of dynamic factors in Islamic jurisprudence such as “independent reasoning”, “principle of no harm”, and “fundamentals of rationality”, it is compatible with Islamic and Iranian legal fundamentals.