Nature and Effects of Offset Transactions in the Law of Iran and Islamic Jurisprudence

Nowadays the prevalence and significance of mutual transactions particularly offset contracts in an international level on the one hand and lack of adequate familiarity with such transactions in the law of Iran on the other hand have given rise to the fact that natural and legal persons are deprived of a wide range of transactions current in international trade. Studying the concept and various types of offset contracts، the present article deals with their nature and effects from the perspective of law of Iran and Shiite jurisprudence. According to these transactions، the customer supplies a product and the vender in turn promises to provide the material used in that product from the purchasing party، or generally to buy an amount of goods equivalent to the value of the sale contract from the first party. As a result، according to the way of relation of vendor’s obligations to the original contract، offset transactions are divided into two categories، direct and indirect ones. The novel idea in this research can be in framing and finding the nature، and effects of one of the most complex transactions in the field of countertrade lying in the domain of mutual sale in terms of concepts، rules and principles in Iranian legal system as well as in Shiite jurisprudence. A variety of ideas can be raised towards determining the specific nature of offset transactions in Iranian law and the Shiite jurisprudence. Hiring persons، mixed contracts، private contracts، promised sale، and the sale of unascertained goods under obligation are the frameworks subject to investigation in this regard. As to the effects of these transactions، suspension in transfer of the object of sale، delivery of the purchase money while concluding the contract، determining a contractual sanction against failure to fulfill obligations، and sale before due can be raised here. Certain points are briefly mentioned in the article while their explanations can be found in a dissertation with the same topic.