مرجع ملی

Considering the essential role of national authorities in the implementation of treaties, it is important to study the process of determining them. In this article, in order to identify the weaknesses and strengths of the Iranian executive branch's procedure in determining national authorities, we have analyzed this procedure in a descriptive-analytical way. The result is that the authority of the government in this field is basically based upon assigning this authority by the legislature, which has been achieved in: 1- Determining the national authority in an Act and granting the authority to change it, 2- Not specifying the national authority in an Act and granting the authority to determine and change it. If the legislature is silent about the national authority, the government can determine the national authority by referring to Principle 138 of the Constitution for ensuring the implementation of the law ratified a treaty. In addition, in the case of ratification of a treaty by the government or determination of a national authority in the text of a treaty, the authority of the government is not based on the will of the legislature. One of the important criticisms of the government's procedure in this field is citing incorrect bases for determining some national authorities, especially in the wrong reference to the Act of adding two notes to the Act of membership of Iran in international organizations and institutions of 1370 and citing the principle 138 instead of the Act assigning the authority to determine the national authority.

Many international treaties explicitly or implicitly require the determination of national authorities by the contracting parties in order to implement all or part of the treaty obligations, and therefore, it is important to study the process of determining national authorities. In Iran, only the legislative and executive branches have played a role in determining national authorities; In this article, in order to identify the strengths and weaknesses of the Iranian legislature's procedure in determining national authorities, we have analyzed this procedure in a descriptive-analytical way. The result of the study is that due to the silence of the Constitution regarding national authorities, the legislature has, based on the general competence of legislation, the authority to determine national authorities for all international treaties and institutions. Despite this, in many cases, the legislature has left the determination/changing of national authorities to the executive branch, which is critical, especially considering that some of these national authorities are non-executive. Anyway, comprehensive knowledge of the treaty, which is required to determine a national authority, is generally obtained for parliamentarians at the time of ratification of a treaty, and therefore, the most appropriate tool for determining the national authority is the Act ratifying the treaty, but the legislature in rare cases has used these Acts to determine national authorities. Meanwhile ratification of a treaty by the executive branch, which is allowed in some cases, and determination of national authorities in the text of the treaties, have limited the power of the legislature to determine national authorities.