An Interpretation of Article 961 of the Civil Code

By the widespread of international relations, the issues related to private international law, particularly the entitlement of foreigners to the civil rights, have become more important. In the Iranian law, although the entitlement of foreigners to the civil rights has been recognized as a principle as per Article 961 of the Civil Code, but its three paragraphs provides certain exceptions. Owing to the ambiguity and differences of such principle and its exceptions, an reasonable interpretation of the Article is necessary. In this paper, in addition to the precise explanation of the concepts and instances of Article 961 of the Civil Code, we review the most controversial debate on the aforesaid Article (i.e. the identity or the difference among the first and third paragraphs of the Article) and further to comment on the different views on this issue. We also explain that the third paragraph is different from the first paragraph by its meaning and its application.