ILO Staff

EXPORT INSURANCE AND EXPORT GUARANTEE

It is reported on the website of egfi.org on November 30, 2014 that:

Within the visit of Alexey Ulyukaev, Minister of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, to Islamic Republic of Iran, with the invitation of Mohammad Reza Nematzadeh, Minister of Industry, Mine and Trade of I.R. of Iran, Export Insurance Agency of Russia (EXIAR) and Export Guarantee Fund of Iran (EGFI) entered into a Framework Agreement aimed at developing trade and investment between Russia and Iran. The timing of this signing follows several high level agreements between the two countries.

Read More

LEX PETROLEA & INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL ARBITRATION

Lex Petrolea & International Commercial Arbitration, 4th Bi-Monthly N & A (November 29, 2014)According to Shana.ir on October 15, 2014:

Managing director of the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC) Roknoddin Javadi has said that he thinks an independent arbitration and supervisory body should be established to oversee oil industry contracts.

Speaking at the third national conference on upgrading contractual frameworks in oil industry, Javadi said Tuesday that it was necessary for the congress to prepare a contractual roadmap through sharing views between outsourcers and contractors.

Read More

TRANSIT TRANSPORT, IRAN AND ITS NEIGHBOURING COUNTRIES

Transit Transport, Iran & its Neighbouring Countries, 16th Bi-Weekly N & A (November 22, 2014)According to Bloomberg.com on November 4, 2014:

China plans a $16.3 billion fund to finance construction of infrastructure linking its markets to three continents as President Xi Jinping pushes forward with his plans to revive the centuries-old Silk Road trading route.

The fund, overseen by Chinese policy banks, will be used to build and expand railways, roads and pipelines in Chinese provinces that are part of the strategy to facilitate trade over land and shipping routes, according to government officials who participated in drafting the plan.

Read More

TAX HAVENS, TAX EVASION AND BANKING SECRECY

Tax Havens, Tax Evasion and Banking Secrecy, 15th Bi-Weekly N & A (November 7, 2014)According to Bloomberg.com on October 29, 2014:

Governments around the world closed in on tax evaders with an automatic data-sharing agreement that broadens efforts by the U.S. and the five biggest European Union economies to more than 50 countries and territories.

Finance ministers signed the agreement in Berlin today in a signal of global determination to capture tax revenue, after the U.S. pursued banks such as Credit Suisse Group AG (CSGN) for helping Americans cheat on their taxes and German authorities bought CDs containing stolen bank data.

Read More

TURKCELL v. THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN & BILATERAL INVESTMENT TREATIES

Turkcell v. I. R. Iran & BITs, 14th Bi-Weekly N & A (October 22, 2014)On October 16, 2014, the website of Noodles.com published the Turkcell company’s “Announcement regarding the Arbitration Case in relation to the GSM License Tender in Iran”:

Our Company had been awarded with the GSM license following the tender initiated to operate a GSM network in Islamic Republic of Iran. However, on the grounds that the license had been awarded to another company by Islamic Republic of Iran in an unlawful way, Turkcell have filed an ad hoc arbitration on January 11, 2008.

Tribunal awarded that it has no jurisdiction to entertain Turkcell’s claims. Our company is assessing possible legal options against the Tribunal’s award.

Read More

FOREIGN DIRECT AND PORTFOLIO INVESTMENT, DIFFERENCES & SIMILARITIES

I. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI)
According to Jones and Wren in Foreign Direct Investment and the Regional Economy (2012):
The standard definition of foreign direct investment is given by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD, 1996). A key aspect of this is that it represents the notion of one enterprise in a particular country having a degree of control over another enterprise in a different country, as opposed to just the provision of financial capital. It is classed as, “investment that adds to, deducts from or acquires a lasting interest in an enterprise operating in an economy” arising from outside the country in order to “have an effective voice in the management of the enterprise” (OECD, 1996, p. 7). In the event that a foreign investor does not have an effective voice in the management of the company, then the investment is classified as „portfolio investment‟ (emphasis added).

Read More

ANUULING THE SANCTIONS BY COURTS, LEGAL AND ECONOMIC IMPACTS

Gist of the news
Presstv.ir reported on September 19, 2014 that:
A top European court has struck down restrictions imposed by the European Union against the Central Bank of Iran (CBI) on an alleged charge of circumventing US-led sanctions against the Islamic Republic.
In a judgment on Thursday, the Luxembourg-based EU‟s Court of Justice said it “annuls…the EU March 23, 2012 [ruling] concerning restrictive measures against Iran in so far as it listed Central Bank of Iran.”
“The reasons relied on are so vague and lacking in detail that the only possible response was in the form of a general denial,” the court ruled on Thursday, adding that “those reasons therefore do not comply with the requirements of the case-law.”
It said the charge leveled against the CBI is “insufficient in the sense that it does not enable either the applicant or the Court to understand the circumstances which led the [European] Council…to adopt the contested act.”
The Financial Times reported one day earlier that:

Read More

Iran Joining the Berne Convention

Gist of the news
Tehrantimes.com reported more than two years ago on April 3, 2012 that:
A bill to join the Universal Copyright Convention has recently been completed by Iranian Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, an official of the ministry said on Tuesday. The bill has been submitted for discussion in the cabinet, the ministry’s Legal Department Director Ahmad-Ali Mohsenzadeh told the Persian service of the Iranian Students News Agency.
Almost two years later on April 15, 2014, the website of yjc.ir reported that according to Hasan Noushabadi, the Deputy Minister of Culture in Legal and Parliamentary Affairs:
“…Iran is preparing a bill to join the Bern convention as well as the Rome Convention for the Protection of Performers, Producers of Phonograms and Broadcasting Organizations.”

Read More

Legal Ramification of Article 968 of the Civil Code of Iran

Executive summary
The interpretations of article 968 of the Civil Code of Iran (CCI) can be subdivided into two groups. Under the first one that is supported by few lawyers, article 968 is a mandatory provision of the CCI. This means that all obligations arising out of contracts are subject to lex loci contractus, wherever they are concluded. The only exception to this rule is where both of the parties are foreign citizens who have explicitly or implicitly declared that their contract shall be subject to a law other than lex loci contractus. The second interpretation is a more liberal and more popular one. Under this interpretation, article 968 is a facultative provision of the CCI authorizing the Iranian as well as the foreign citizens to subject their contracts to any law that they deem appropriate.

Read More