A Comparative Study of Land Reform Act and Its Amendment in Iran

Undoubtedly, land reform is among the significant events of Iran's contemporary history. The importance of this issue has made the experts in different fields examine and analyze the subject from different aspects. This descriptive-analytical aimed at comparing the “act” of land reform adopted by the National Assembly and Senate in 1959 and 1960 with its amendment “bill” adopted by the Cabinet of Ministers in 1961 to find out the most important aspects of their differentiating and sharing features. The results indicated that the preparation and drafting of the “bill” had been carefully reviewed by the producers so that as far as possible, it could be implemented in line with the conditions and rules governing the villages of Iran; moreover, compared to the “act”, the “bill” entailed more benefits for the farmers, rather than the land owners while the “act” entailed more benefits for the land owners, rather than the farmers. As shown, granting more authority to the ministry of agriculture in the “bill” compared to the “act” was one of the other differences between them. Accordingly, the mentioned items could be considered as the advantages of the “bill” compared to the “act” while the exclusion of endowed lands might be one of the advantages of the “act”.