Fraud to the Law in Private International Law

Fraud to the law is one of the important issues of private international law and one the notable topics of the conflict of laws. One could give two relatively different meanings of the concept of fraud to the law. First, avoiding the proper domestic or foreign law accompanied by voluntarily changing the connecting elements such as nationality and domicile. This study shows that the avoidance of the parties from the appropriate law is not always with the change of the connecting elements. A modern meaning of the concept of fraud to the law refers to the avoidance of both or either of the parties from the applicable law with a change of legal relations. From a substantive point also, the study of fraud to the law indicates that two material and mental element contribute to the establishment of this lagal institution. But ascertaining the mental element, that is, the fraudulent intent of the parties or one of them is not an easy task. It seems that according to Iran’s private international law and on the basis of Article 990 of the Civil Code, in order to prevent fraud to the law, those Iranians who have acquired foreign nationality are allowed to return to their Iranian nationality only if the Iranian government accepts their application and exercises its discretion.