Effects of Hermeneutic Views on Legal Interpretation of Contracts

In most legal systems,interpretation is performed with the aim of determining the common will and intention of the parties.Sometimes,the contract texts contain vague,insufficient,defective,or contradictory elements that make it difficult to reveal the common intention of the parties,and may even lead to interpretations in clear contrast with the parties’common intention.At times,the circumstances governing the execution of a contract change to a degree that it is not possible to see the contract as the true interpretation of the intention of the parties.Hermeneutic interpretation methods revolve around three elements:the text,the author,and the interpreter.Among hermeneutic interpretation approaches,the hermeneutic circle is in greater harmony with major theories in the modern contract law and the contract law in Iran.interpreter considers all the mental elements and presuppositions of the parties when the text is prepared,and recreates the contract using implied terms,and accepted customs of the parties.This interpretation method is more flexible than traditional methods,thus achieving greater harmony with justice and fairness criteria by putting contractual relations under the government of the criteria of the actual will.this research sought to examine the methods of interpretation common in hermeneutics,enumerate the strengths and weaknesses of each,delve into major theories in the modern contract law such as neoformalism and convention-based interpretations,and finally develop a balanced method free of extremism according to current circumstances and the principles of the modern contract law.