STUDY OF THE FACTORS OF ROMAN-GERMAN LEGAL SYSTEM'S IMPACT ON IRANIAN MODERN LAW

Due to the British hegemony of Iran in both pre- and post-Constitutional Revolutionary periods (1906-1911), the Iranian legal system was expected to be influenced by British Common Law following the establishment of the modern government after the Revolution. But it did not happen for various legal and non-legal reasons. A major legal reason could be Iranians’ long history of acquaintance with the written Islamic law, which provided an appropriate background for taking the Roman-German legal system, rather than the Common Law one. Considering Iran’s experience of different Western countries, it also included non-legal reasons: anxieties about further British hegemony; optimism about France compared to Russia and Britain; the use of French in the palace as the diplomatic language; the elites’ knowledge of the French language due to their education in France; and the inspiration of the French education system on the modern Iranian system. paper will focus on these reasons.