Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
Department of Private Law, Faculty of Law and Political Science, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
The normative analysis of legislative behavior in the field of national lands is of great significance, it clarifies the approaches and strategies adopted by the legislator in enacting relevant rules and regulations. This research, employing an inductive method (from particular to general), attempts to delineate the legislator’s overall perspective on national lands over the past century and, by identifying its hidden dimensions, to provide an evaluation thereof. Under the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran, “national lands,” classified among anfāl (public wealth), fall under the ownership of the state. Nevertheless, the formal exercise of public ownership over such lands officially began in 1962 with the enactment of the Nationalization of Forests and Rangelands Act. A review of legislative developments in this field demonstrates that the legislator’s primary aim in depriving individuals of private ownership was the protection of these resources and the prevention of their destruction through regulatory oversight of exploitation. Over the past sixty-two years, numerous laws concerning the exploitation, conservation, and management of national lands have been enacted; however, the process of degradation has continued to accelerate. To diagnose the roots of this failure, the study identifies the normative patterns of legislation governing national lands from their inception to the present, in order to determine which concepts or regulatory measures were overlooked that have led to the current extensive destruction of natural resources. The findings ultimately reveal that the challenge lies not in a shortage of laws but in the excessive multiplicity of ineffective and incoherent regulations. Based on these results, several recommendations are proposed to strengthen legislative policy: consolidating scattered laws, strengthening enforcement and oversight, and reforming institutional structures to shift from the current reactive and sectoral approach to a preventive and holistic approach for better safeguarding of national lands and their preservation for future generations
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