Enforcement Guarantee in Law and Public Policy: A Case Study of Article (1) of the

Ameri Sani, Amirkia; Hajizadeh, Amirhosein; Sahebkar Khorasani, Seyyed Mohammad; Sajjadi, Seyyed Ali

doi:10.22034/jpl.2025.2060263.1209

Enforcement Guarantee in Law and Public Policy: A Case Study of Article (1) of the "Act on the Mandatory Registration of Real Estate Transactions" (enacted in 2024)

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

Amirkia Ameri Sani ¹

Amirhosein Hajizadeh ²

Seyyed Mohammad Sahebkar Khorasani ³

Seyyed Ali Sajjadi ⁴

¹ PhD in Criminal Law and Criminology, Tehran University, Faculty of Law & Political Science, Tehran, Iran.

² LLM from Farabi branch of Tehran University, Tehran, Iran

³ Assistant professor at Technology Studies Institute, Tehran, Iran

⁴ LLM Student in International Commercial and Economic law at Tehran University, Tehran, Iran.

10.22034/jpl.2025.2060263.1209

Abstract

One of the most significant distinctions between the legal approach and the public policy approach to problem-solving lies in their respective perspectives on the design of enforcement guarantee. In this article, we aim to answer the question of what distinctions exist between the legal and public policy approaches to enforcement guarantee and which approach has been adopted in the design of the enforcement guarantee outlined in Article 1 of the "Act on the Mandatory Registration of Real Estate Transactions" (Enacted in 2024). This study, employing a qualitative legal methodology in the analysis of statutory text, and through using a public policy approach, examines the conceptual differences between law and public policy in the design of enforcement frameworks. Based on the policy-making process of the "Act on the Mandatory Registration of Real Estate Transactions" (Enacted in 2024), The findings demonstrate that exclusive reliance on traditional legal sanctions proves insufficient in addressing legal and judicial problems and may in fact result in secondary harms. The problem of the validity of informal (non-registered) documents constitutes one of the fundamental challenges within Iran’s legal and judicial system, with its detrimental effects extending across various levels and areas of public policy. The analysis of the "Act on the Mandatory Registration of Real Estate Transactions" (Enacted in 2024) as the case study of this research highlights the adoption of a public policy perspective in the design of the enforcement mechanism stipulated in Article 1 of the Act, which diverges from the conventional reliance on criminal sanctions a pattern extensively observed in Iran's public policy processes. In this case, the design of the enforcement guarantee reflects a shift from traditional criminalization toward a policy-based sanction, namely inadmissibility of claims. Since the issuance of inadmissibility orders has not been explicitly stipulated in previous Iranian legislation and has largely been developed through judicial practice, the enforcement guarantee introduced in Article 1 constitutes the first explicit legislative recognition of the inadmissibility of a specific claim. The findings of this study indicate that addressing public issues within the legal and judicial domain such as the validity of ordinary documentsrequires moving beyond traditional legal frameworks and adopting interdisciplinary approaches, particularly legal policy-making as a branch of public policy. An approach that utilizes the principles and techniques of public policy to enhance both the quality of the policy-making process in legal and judicial affairs, as well as improve the quality of its outputs in the form of overarching documents, laws, and regulations.

Keywords

Policy formulation

Legal policy-making

Public policy

Ordinary documents

Enforcement guarantee

الف. کتاب‌ها

1. احمدزاده، رسول، مشایخی، زهرا (1401)، عناوین مجرمانه، چاپ سوم، تهران: مرکز مطبوعات و انتشارات قوه قض