An introduction on rights governed in energy services contracts

An introduction on rights governed in energy services contracts Hamid Reza Aslani PhD، Private Law، Shahid Beheshti University، Assistant professor and Faculty Member، Department of law، University of Science & Culture hamidreza. aslani@gmail. com Fatemeh Alavi٭ MSc of International Law، Islamic Azad University، Central Tehran Branch farahalavi77@gmail. com (Corresponding Author) Received: 2013/08/28 Accepted: Abstract: One of the useful measures for saving in energy consumption in Iran is to make investment market in order to optimize energy carriers’ consumption through founding Energy Services Companies (ESCO). This feature can provide economic benefits and also a suitable context to attract domestic and foreign capitals. For this purpose، we need an efficient، effective and integrated legal- contractual system. Since studying terms of a contract helps to recognize its nature، this paper tries to find out legal nature of ESCO contracts (i. e. which legal entity in Iranian legal system this contract is in line with?) in order to initially compare such entity with some specified contracts in the civil code and Iranian trade. Present paper aims to compare ESCO contract with some domestic legal entities and place it on some well-known concepts frame and also study opportunities، perspectives، challenges and gaps of mentioned contracts. The results show that in spite of similarities of this entity with contracts for renting، reward and commissioning، their segregation is so much that description of ESCO contract under mentioned contracts is not correct and it cannot be placed under a single legal regime as they are not quite consistent. Hence، given the natural attributes and elements of ESCO contract، the appropriate nature of ESCO follows articles 10 and 183 of civil law (i. e. freedom of contracts principles، validity of a contracts principle and priority of nature on selected subject) which have left some effective analytical and practical works and make this contract consistent with Iranian legal system.