Feasibility of Extending the Inheritance Rule in Cases of Deaths with Unknown Timing to Traffic Accidents: A Comparative Approach in Iranian and French Law

Document Type : scientific

Authors

1 PhD Student in Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Islamic Law, Faculty of Law, Theology and Political Science, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

2 Professor, Department of Theology and Islamic Studies, Farabi Campus, University of Tehran, Qom, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Department of Jurisprudence and Fundamentals of Islamic Law, Faculty of Humanities, Yadegar-e-Imam Khomeini Branch, Islamic Azad University, Shahr-e-Rey, Iran.

Abstract

According to the primary legal principle, the realization of inheritance is contingent upon verifying the heir's survival at the time of the testator's death. Based on this principle, inheritance is nullified in cases of deaths with unknown timing. This ruling, however, admits exceptions in both French law and Iranian law. In Iranian law, the ruling includes exceptions in two scenarios: destruction (hadm) and drowning (gharq). According to the predominant view among jurists, this exception should be interpreted strictly, thus precluding its extension to deaths with unknown timing resulting from traffic accidents. The Civil Code, in Article 873, has adhered to this strict interpretation approach. However, based on the view of prominent jurists, the mentioned exception can be extended to similar cases. Proponents of extension, based on certain analyses, consider the specific titles mentioned in the evidence for these exceptions as not being essential to the ruling. Therefore, by expanding the concept of destruction (hadm), they have extended this ruling to cases such as traffic accidents. This research, employing a descriptive-analytical method, reflects upon narrative evidence and their linguistic aspects to discover different indicators and evidence - based on expanding the concept of destruction on one hand, and relying on specific verbal relationships to discover the criterion and isolate the effective cause (tanqih al-manat) on the other - thereby making it possible to extend the ruling to similar cases such as traffic accidents.

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Main Subjects

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Civil Jurisprudence Doctrines
Volume 17, Issue 32
December 2025
Pages 11-42

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History

  • Receive Date: 01 February 2025
  • Revise Date: 07 May 2025
  • Accept Date: 19 July 2025
  • Publish Date: 22 December 2025

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