Lex Petrolia; An independent and Transnational legal System or a Secondary and Complementary Source in the Oil and Gas Industry

Document Type : ISI

Authors

1 professor and member of the Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran Iran.

2 PhD Student in the field of Oil and Gas Law, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran, Tehran Iran.

Abstract

The term transnational law was first introduced by Philip. C. Jessup became famous in his book published in 1956 under the title "Transnational Law". In the explanation of this term, it can be said that when actions or events go beyond the national society, they create transnational phenomena and relationships that give the identity of the society and the transnational society. Therefore, transnational phenomena and relations are entities, events or situations that include more than one legal-political system (nation-country). In fact, it is accepted that the emergence of transnational rights is influenced by political, economic, cultural and social forces in one word (sociology of law). Many new subjects fall under the category of one of the recognized national or international legal systems, but according to the basic view in this article, "transnational law" is the subject of a distinct legal system that does not belong to any legal system (national or international) and is outside of The territory of state law (nation-state) is located. In this regard, lex petrolea, as a set of conventional rules of the oil industry, can be one of these subjects, but it is not defined precisely and is used in a contradictory manner and has an unclear scope. This term was officially introduced in international law through the famous dispute of AMIN Oil and Kuwait oil exploration. A review of the existing literature about the theory of lex petrolia shows that there is no theoretical consensus regarding the concepts and foundations of this theory. Regarding the nature and scope of the expansion of the legal principles claimed by the aforementioned theory, there are different views, from a limited set in the field of oil arbitrations to a comprehensive world order.
Purpose - The purpose of the discussions raised in this article is whether transnational law can be evaluated as an independent system in the context of the emergence of lex petrolia. Is such a set of propositions and procedures and legal principles, assuming proof, located along the main sources of law in the national and international legal systems or across them; if it is raised along them, it means that it does not have an independent existence by itself and its validity It is subject to approval in domestic and international legal systems. But if it is claimed to be within the main sources of law, the implication is that it can be considered as an independent source of law.
Research method- The method of this research is descriptive-analytical and with a new approach with a view to the Sociology of law and library sources and published scientific articles have been used.
Conclusion- The review of the existing literature about the lex petrolia theory shows that there is no theoretical consensus regarding the concepts and foundations of this theory. However, contrary to what some jurists claim, the theory of Lex Petrolia as a legal system independent and self-sufficient from domestic and international legal systems and with binding properties has not been realized and recognized so far. The arguments of the aforementioned jurists in this regard do not prove the elements and characteristics necessary for the realization of an independent legal system. Therefore, it is not possible to reach a conclusion in this regard with a purely legal-logical point of view, but if legal independence is to be given to Lex Petrolia as an independent and transnational resource, we must adopt a new approach based on the legal sociology method and social expectation. These legal social expectations can be justified by resorting to the independent credit basis of transnational commercial law instead of resorting to the rule of conflict resolution, that is when Lex Petrolia is understood and accepted as a type of transnational social law because this legal rule relies on It is the need of the society, not the legal system of the "nation-country". The meaning is that in order to understand the concept and basis of lex petrolia, we must search for legal rules by the method of legal sociology.

Keywords

Main Subjects

References

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Journal Of Researches Energy Law Studies
Volume 8, Issue 2
March 2023
Pages 333-353

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