Arbitration and Conditions of Referring to It in Iran’s Oil Disputes

Oil represents a big share in Iran’s economy; thus, it is a sensitive issue for the public in Iran, and oil disputes are a public concern and provoke political debate in Iran. This article analyses the importance of arbitration as an oil dispute resolution mechanism, then, it studies the possibility of taking cases to it under international and Iranian law. To this aim, it employs a comparative legal approach to highlight factors in arbitration’s popularity among other Alternative Dispute Resolution mechanisms. Then, the legitimacy of taking cases to arbitration is investigated from domestic and international law perspectives. Finally, implications of the Iranian law on the performance of the National Iranian Oil Company in the arbitration proceedings are discussed and a recommendation to alter conditions of going to arbitration is presented for lawmakers.