A reflection on the competent authorities and the formal procedure of land expropriation in Iranian and French law

In modern legal systems, the state has the power to own land in order to achieve part of the public purpose, and laws determine the scope of authority of government authorities to secure property rights. In this regard, the main question of the present article is what are the competent authorities in the process of expropriation in the law of Iran and France and what is the process of expropriation in these two countries in terms of public interest? The results of the present study indicate that in France, expropriation operations are carried out by dual administrative and judicial institutions in two stages: administrative and judicial. The administrative authorities begin it, and the judges and the special judge of judicial possessions end it by issuing a transfer of ownership and an order to pay compensation. But in the Iranian legal system, the powers of the executive branch are vast and the role of the judiciary is limited, and the expropriation judge in the Iranian judicial system is unknown. However, the intervention of the prosecutor as the guardian of the public interest in the stage of transfer of property is mandatory. In addition, in the process of acquiring property in Iran, unlike in France, right holders do not have the opportunity to object or request an appeal regarding the method of approving the plan and its content.