An Economic Analysis of Law from a Jurisprudential Perspective in Iran's Legal System

The economic analysis of law is a new product of the link between law and economics, according to which legal rules are evaluated by economic methods. The historical study of the formation of this method of analysis shows that changing the attitude of lawyers and economists from idealism to realism and, consequently, changing their way of studying from formalism in the nineteenth century into realism leads to the creation of this method. The main question of the present research is whether this realistic approach can be adapted to the principles and legal rules of Iran. This question arises from the fact that Iran's law in accordance with Articles Fourth and One hundred and sixty-seven of the Constitution, based on Islamic law and Shi'i jurisprudence and due to the dominance of the rules of jurisprudence over it, is Compliant with idealism, not realism. Accordingly, the purpose of this research is to establish that the basis of the theory of economic analysis of the law is compatible with the jurisprudential foundations of Iranian law or not. The result of the research shows that economic analysis of law is not subject to purely realist thinking, and some of its types are based on idealism. Moreover, Iran's law is not purely idealistic, and some religious sources are realistic. Therefore, using the economic analysis of law to analyze the sources and rules of Iran's law is possible. However, the use of economic methods cannot be applied uniformly in all areas of law. In the economic fields of law, the use of economic analysis is both to determine efficiency and to determine the purpose of legal rules and institutions, but in non-economic fields, the application of economics is limited to efficiency