The Concept of Civil Liability

Despite the development and prevalence of the term “civil liability” in Iranian law, some serious questions exist or remain concerning its meaning and domain. In our traditional law and jurisprudence, there have been various decrees and rules about infliction of corporal and financial damages to a third party in the forms of the rule of destruction, blood money, guarantee, usurpation, and nuisance.  In each of these subjects, the conditions for creating liability and its effects are independent and different from the others. However, the civil liability law, in its modern and coherent meaning, has general and coherent decrees, rules and conditions. In fact, the civil liability law, as an independent legal institution, deals with all the topics and instances of compensation in a unified and organized manner. Even in certain cases, such as the obligation to make a payment and compensation of moral damages, that do not occupie a significant position in Islamic jurisprudence, are included within the framework of these general topics and conditions.Considering the sovereignty of Islamic jurisprudence over the modern Iranian law following the Islamic Revolution, it is necessary to define the civil liability law and determine its connection to the jurisprudential decrees and sections in a manner that it does not lead to misinterpretation and disharmony with jurisprudential decrees and misunderstanding of Islamic jurisprudence. This article tries to deal with this important issue.This article tries to deal with this important issue.