The Capacities and Shortcomings of Iranian Law and Imamiyah Jurisprudence in Realization of the Doctrine of Right to City in Light of the French Legal Experience: With Emphasis on the Rules of Land Ownership

In the doctrine of Right to City, born and developed in France by western thinkers, parts of the rights are referred to as the Right to City: right to public services, right to proper housing, right to green space, etc. Existence of government or public lands and formulation of rules for government intervention for construction and design of urban public spaces like expropriation, quotas, segregation, land use and environmental requirements are necessary to realize these rights. Under the Iranian law, due to the Islamic ideas that formed the bases of the Islamic government, rights similar to those referred to are reflected and several rules are predicted for the enjoyment of these rights by the people. The existence of various specific types of lands under the name of Anfal, public commonalities, public ownership and the Vali-e-Faqih’s extensive authority over lands have been treated as a pretext for the realization of these rights. However, effective participation of citizens has not been taken into consideration in the codification, modification, implementation and supervision of these rights. Therefore, citizens (main beneficiaries) do not participate in determining the provisions, scope and manner of implementation of rights, rather, members of councils or, in some cases, special commissions in which citizens have no role to play, have the decision-making power and there are no effective legal tools to oversee them apart from formal oversight by the Court of Administrative Justice.