The Challenge of the Responsibility of the Ignorant Usurper; A Manifestation of Mixing Civil and Criminal Responsibility in Iranian Law

There are three distinct periods in the history of the relationship between civil and criminal liability: mixing, separation and convergence. After civil and criminal liability were integrated into each other for a long time, in the 17th century AD, grounds for their separation were provided. Nowadays, civil and criminal liability in modern legal systems are separated from each other and with the approaches proposed in each, they are getting closer and effectively communicating with each other. By applying the aforementioned developments in Iran's legal system, it is clear that the distinctions between civil and criminal liability are not properly observed and clear faces of mixing are evident. In particular, strict rules have been considered in the civil law and in the discussion of the owner's rights and the liability of an ignorant person for usurpation; including absolute responsibility, disregarding the value of the usurper's work and the usurper's guarantee regarding non-reimbursable interests. The imposition of such rulings and its extension to the ignorant usurper is not compatible with the principles of civil liability, and therefore it can be considered as a manifestation of mixing civil and criminal liability in Iranian law. Because this approach is more of a criminal responsibility than a civil responsibility, and it has caused the objectives of another field of responsibilities to be raised and pursued in the civil responsibility. The present research examines the mentioned subject in an analytical-descriptive way.