For courts, notaries and law firms

The sanctions assessment is not my task, and no funds run through me in any configuration.

And conflicts of interest. In a matter in which my office in Iran represents one of the parties, I do not act as an independent expert. The two roles do not combine, and I check that before accepting any matter.

One. A written opinion on Iranian law

The form depends on your forum. For courts and notaries in Germany, a written opinion. For common-law proceedings, an expert declaration or an expert report, observing that jurisdiction’s rules on the expert’s role. For France, a certificat de coutume.

I write both as a court-appointed and as a party-appointed expert. Every opinion states expressly which of the two it is. I do not conceal that, because the weight of the opinion depends on it.

Two. A short answer by email

Sometimes no formal opinion is needed, only a first orientation. Whether your question has an answer in Iranian law at all, for instance, or what effect a document in the file can have in Iran. If the exchange shows that no opinion is needed, I say exactly that.

Three. A referral to colleagues in Iran

Part of the work is not an opinion but execution: filing, registry searches, the steps of the heirship procedure, obtaining and certifying documents. That is done by my network of colleagues in Iran. The referral is free, on one condition: feedback once the matter is closed. That is the only thing that keeps the network reliable.

This question reaches me more often than any other, and it is less often solved by the statute book than any other.

Two questions taken for one

Source of funds asks where this particular amount came from. Source of wealth asks how this person came to hold this wealth. The first looks at one transaction, the second at a lifetime. Iranian files usually fail on the second, because the wealth was built over decades and in a system whose documents do not align with the European one.

The usual sources, and the evidence each requires

Inheritance, evidenced by the certificate of heirship, the estate inventory and the tax clearance. Sale of property, which needs the registered deed, the registry position and the tax clearance. Sale of shares, which follows from the company’s registry file, the gazette publication and the resolutions. Professional or business income, evidenced by tax returns and the trading permit. And the lifetime gift, which has a position of its own and often has no document beyond a privately written contract.

Five places the chain breaks

The certificate of heirship names heirs, not assets. It therefore evidences a fraction of something the document itself does not describe.
The family divided the estate informally before anyone thought about a bank, and the shares in the certificate no longer match what each person received.
The price entered in the sale deed is below the real one. The deed is authentic and the sale lawful, but the figure does not match the sum that arrived.
Civil status, land register, commercial register and tax file share no common reference, and no single document carries the chain from beginning to end.
And the spelling of the name or the date of birth differ between the Iranian document and the passport, which on its own can stop the entire file.

What I do

I reconstruct the Iranian chain: determination of heirs, registry position, transfer history, tax clearance and the company’s registry file. I then set out in writing what Iranian law makes of those records, what each document proves and what it does not, and expressly where no record exists and none can be obtained. It is that last point that convinces a compliance department, not the others.

You build the structure. I say whether it reaches the Iranian assets.

The point where most structures fail

Real property situated in Iran is subject to Iranian law. A German family foundation cannot take it in, and an English or American trust does not reach it of its own force either. Iranian law does not recognise the trust as a legal institution. A structure that is flawless for the European half therefore has no effect on the Iranian half, and that half goes its own way on death.

The fixed shares that defeat the assumption of testamentary freedom

Many structures rest on the assumption that the deceased can allocate the estate freely. In Iranian law a will reaches only one third of the estate; beyond that it operates only with the heirs’ consent. The shares are fixed by statute, and the deceased’s parents are first-class heirs taking one sixth each, even alongside children. A structure that does not account for this will not withstand a dissatisfied heir in Iran.

The vaqf, and what it is and is not

The Iranian institution closest to the idea of a foundation is the vaqf. But it is not the family foundation: it has its own rules, its administration follows the founder’s conditions and the supervision of the competent body, and unwinding it is practically impossible. For part of the objectives it works, for another part it does not, and that has to be known before the decision rather than after.

The vasi, in place of a trust that does not exist

Where a trust or an executor sits in your legal system, Iranian law has the vasi: a person appointed by the deceased who administers and distributes the estate and holds the assets as a fiduciary. With a precise will, that is the functionally closest tool. A power of attorney does not replace it, because it lapses on death.

And dual-national beneficiaries

A child with Iranian and European nationality is a beneficiary in two legal systems at once. A structure that is efficient from the standpoint of one can create a problem from the standpoint of the other, and that usually emerges years later and at the worst moment.

Split by forum, because the shape of the question differs in each system.

Courts and notaries in Germany

Does the 1929 Establishment Agreement designate Iranian succession law in this matter, and what role does the deceased’s residence play.
How are the succession shares calculated under Iranian law, and does the result withstand the ordre public review.
What is the legal nature of the mahr agreed in the marriage deed, and how does it stand against the estate.
Is an Iranian certificate of heirship enough for the estate court, or is a foreign-law certificate of inheritance needed.
Who had authority to sign under Iranian law on a particular date, and from which document does that follow.

Common-law proceedings (USA, England, Canada, Australia)

There foreign law is a question of fact and has to be proved. The questions usually run like this:
Does Iranian law recognise this institution, and if so on what condition.
Is the mahr a contractual obligation in Iranian law or something else, and from what moment.
What effect does the document in hand have in Iran, and does it prove ownership.
Does a trust or comparable structure have any effect on assets situated in Iran.
And in US matters the same question in the form of a declaration with primary sources and a traceable translation.

Notaries in France

One question before all others: does Iranian law provide a protective mechanism in favour of children, in the sense Article 913 of the Code civil has in view. That is a question of Iranian law, and the notary cannot answer it.
Alongside it: the validity of a choice of Iranian law in a will under the EU Succession Regulation, and the route an Iranian document must take for the estate file.

Compliance departments and wealth advisers

Source of funds and source of wealth, at the length set out above. And, as the question grows more common, the testing of foundation and trust structures against Iranian law.

And other forums

Questions from the UAE and from Türkiye also reach me, mostly on the condition under which Iranian law is applied there and with what evidence.

Two pieces of mine on the same subject: Foreign law misapplied · Who actually ascertains Iranian law?

Iranian law from the inside

The Iranian legal order combines a European style of legislative drafting with its own inherited sources. The Iranian Civil Code has French roots, and at the same time its rules come from elsewhere. Understanding a provision remains incomplete without both layers. I have been admitted in Iran since 2008 and have worked in this law ever since, and at university I worked on the foundations of those sources.

Spotting false friends

The real danger is concepts that look alike in two legal orders and are not. The Iranian registered deed is not the German notarial deed, and their effects differ. The Iranian power of attorney has a scope fixed in its own text, and a narrowly drawn power makes one step possible and not the next. The mahr is not a gift and not a prenuptial bargain but a debt that passes to the husband on conclusion of the contract. And the vaqf is not the foundation. Choose the wrong equivalent for any of these and you get not an approximate answer but the wrong one.

Access to practice and documents

Iranian case law is hard to reach from outside, and the statute alone does not show how a provision is handled in practice. Through my network of colleagues in Iran I verify information and obtain documents. In every opinion I name the source so the reader can check for himself, and in the same place I write it down where no record exists.

Making Iranian law readable for a European lawyer

An opinion on Iranian law written for a German judge has to be written in his language and his logic, or it will not be read. That is what my years of legal work in Germany and my collaboration with German lawyers are for. I do not claim command of German law and do not need it. What is needed is that I know the shape of your question and the form in which the answer is of use to you.

I write the opinion myself. It is not passed on.
I name the sources, in the original and in translation, so that every statement can be checked.
I work towards the actual practice, not only the text of the statute. And where I am unsure, I write exactly that. An opinion that conceals uncertainty breaks in the proceedings.

Fees

Flexible, on three things: the complexity of the question, the deadline, and the amount in dispute.
Work begins once the agreed advance has arrived.
A cost estimate that takes more than an hour is itself billable. A short estimate is free of charge.