Abstract

The interpretation of a law text must not be beyond the legislator’s will and it has to take into account the present social conditions. A significant challenge of article 968 of Iranian Civil Code is that if a law text is just considered, the present social conditions should be ignored and vice versa. This research, which is an analytic - descriptive paper, presents a new method of interpretation on the principle of party autonomy in the mentioned article. Gadamer considers legal hermeneutics as a true model for practicing hermeneutics. The present paper applies Gadamer’s legal hermeneutic on the interpretation of article 968 in five steps: 1) Understanding must be built on dialogue and conversation with the text. 2) A historical source helps to be understood the spirit of a law text as well as the intention of the legislator. 3) The interpretation should involve applying the text to the interpreter’s present situation. 4) A law text exists in order to be concretized in its legal validity as well to be understood in every concrete situation in a new and different way. 5) The lawyer is forced to reconcile the spirit of the tradition with the needs of contemporary communities. Thus, in this regard it seems that through Gadamer’s legal hermeneutic both the intention of legislator and the contemporary needs of Iran society, affected by the international community, are considered.