Reappraisal of Abandoning the Right of Ownershipin Imāmiyya Jurisprudence and Iran Law

Object of right is sometimes “debt” and sometimes “object”. Waiving the right of “jus in personam” is called “remission of debts”. Avoiding the objective right is called “relinquishment”. Abandoning the right of ownership in imāmiyya jurisprudence has not been discussed independently and the jurisprudents themselves have pointed out this matter pertinently under some branches like abandoning the property, abandoning the camel in the dessert due to fatigue, abandoning goldsmith’s dust, abandoning drowned ship in the sea and the similar issues. In article 178 of Iranian civil code the avoidance of proprietor has been dependent upon “the possibility of property ownership through another object that can pull this ship out of the sea”. According to the renowned majority of the jurists, relinquishment is waiving the right of property but there is controversy as to what constitutes the authenticity of. The narrations also confirm the voiding nature of relinquishment. Nonetheless, most of the Islamic jurisprudents have flawed the documents and the evidences of such narrations and have not incorporated such meaning into relinquishment. In addition, this article will discuss the examples of relinquishment through a posteriori reasoning in Islamic jurisprudence.