M.A. Thesis:

THE examination of hardship in Iranian law

Abstract Distress or hardship (Osr-o-haraj), a Fighhi (Islamic jurisprudence) and legal secondary principle, is used in a variety of issues including prayings and dealings, canceling (invalidating) primary laws or Ahkam. Laws by nature are set and used to guarantee justice. However, justice is a general ambiguous concept, easily breakable due to the uncertainty about what it exactly entails in different situation. Sometimes, pursuing justice, which is the aim of Islamic primary laws, does not seem in line with equity, and thus achieving justice looks very extreme. Therefore, certain laws have been developed to balance the Islamic primary laws so that they seem more sensible and compatible with equity. Distress and hardship (Osr-o-haraj) is an example of such rules, covering responsibilities which Mokkallaf is logically capable of doing , but, in practice (in reality), seem unbearable for him impossible The present text is organized in three chapters. The first chapter deals with the fundamentals of distress and hardship (osr-o-haraj). The second chapter deals with conditions in which the wife is allowed to ask the court for divorce because she cannot continue her married life for any reason. Moreover, in this chapter, distress and hardship (osr-o-haraj) as related to the laws governing the relation between the landlord and the tenants are discussed. Finally, the third chapter discusses the effect of distress and hardship on international law and dealings in cases in which the occurrence of some unpredictable events makes the fulfillment of duties impossible for one or both parties in a contract.

Keywords: Distress or hardship—justice- impossible - divorce- duties impossible