Analyzing the Nature of Promissory Contract by Rereading the Concept of Obligation in the Laws of Iran

The concepts of commitment and requirement and their relationship with the concept “obligation” in the western laws, on the one hand, and the relationship between these concepts and duty in Imamiyyeh jurisprudence, on the other hand, are amongst the most complicated legal relationship s in Iran. Some jurists realize commitment as a legal relationship; some other s as the composition of a relationship and another group as a fixed duty to be shouldered by an individual. . The exact identification of the concept “commitment” along with the elucidation of a contract’s subject from its exchangeable item would contribute to the analysis of the nature of promissory contract s in the laws of Iran. Investigating the notions of the jurisprudents and jurists, the authors have come to this conclusion that the commitment lacks a legal relationship sense in the laws of Iran and it means the composition of a situational relationship in its infinitive form. Acceptance of commitment in this sense would correct the flaws related to article 183 of the civil law and it will become incorporative of the possessory, promissory and permissive contracts. As an infinitive without to, commitment is a fixed duty to be shouldered by an individual and it can be the subject of a promissory contract whereas the transaction item is the commitment-based doing or not doing of an action in the promissory contracts.