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Iran's commercial code reform invites turmoil

The Iranian parliament's rush job on approving hundreds of articles of a bill designed to reform the commercial code will lead to unconsidered consequences.
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After years of delay, Iran’s parliament suddenly approved 331 articles of the first book of a massive trade reform bill in just one week in mid-September. This came as a surprise to many economic and legal analysts and raised concerns about the fate of the remaining four commercial code books awaiting lawmakers' final verdict.

To highlight some major disadvantages of the bill, it is fairly argued that it's fraught with myriad ambiguous terms that are open to misinterpretation and prone to conflict with the country's business procedures. Among these ambiguities is the bill's introduction and application of common law, which often uses references to precedents rather than strictly statutes. That hasn't been the case in the current commercial code of Iran.

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