Administrative Contracts from the Perspective of Islamic Denomination's Jurisprudence

Today, governments bind contracts with private legal persons in order to fulfill their obligations in various fields. Since the government’s goal of binding such contracts is to provide public interest, so there are certain circumstances that are not common in usual agreements among ordinary people. Equality of parties in rights and privileges has been accepted as a pivotal principle in private law, but the exploitation of public power in administrative contracts makes these contracts in favor of governments. Exceptional terms such as unilateral termination of contract or price changes based on administrative exemptions, raises the question whether such agreements are approved by jurisprudence of Islamic denominations or not? Contrary to the common attitude that considers administrative contract as the offspring of the modern world, jurists of Islamic schools of thought were not unfamiliar with the concept of administrative contracts and referred to this concept in their books. With the emergence of a welfare state and a highlight of the role of the state in people's lives, the importance of administrative contracts has been clear more than before, since without them, it is not possible for states to serve citizens. Islamic Government, from the beginning of its establishment in Medina, and later in the time of Khulafa’ Rashidin, needed a formal legal framework for conducting its affairs. The Prophet's tradition and his successors in dealing with the issues that the Islamic Government resolved through its cooperation with its citizens is a valuable resource in this regard. Evaluating each contract with the general rules of proper contracts is something that should not be easily overlooked.