Abstract: The research subject is mineral resources management in the Republic of Iran in the 19th – the 21st centuries. The authors give special attention to the formation of the national legislation of Iran on natural resources. The authors consider three stages of the modern legal regime of mineral resources management in Iran: the first – contractual – stage, the second – national – stage, and the third – normative legal (post-revolutionary) – stage. Special attention is given to the legal regime of Iran’s continental shelf and to the contracts of the National Iranian Oil Company with agents, contractors and foreign investors. The research contains the information about the formation and development of the system and the structure of governmental management of mineral resources in Iran. The research methodology is based on general scientific methods (dialectics, comparison, analysis, synthesis, analogy, induction, deduction, etc.) and specific methods (formal-legal, comparative-legal, historical-legal, the method of governmental regulation, the system method, the method of prognostication, etc.). The scientific novelty of the article consists in the fact that it reveals the historical patterns of formation and development of Iran’s legislation on natural resources; defines the stages of its formation including the legislation on the continental shelf; studies the essential terms of contracts and patents on joint mineral resources management; defines the legal status of the participants of mineral resources production including foreign investors; describes the historical dynamics of the system and the structure of state management of mineral resources in Iran; and reveals the tendencies of the further development of Iranian legislation on mineral resources management. 

Abstract: The research subject is the legal regime of granting the right to use subsurface resources in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Special attention is given to classification of petroleum contracts and transformation of their essential conditions in the historical dynamics with regard to different types of petroleum contracts. The authors consider upstream contracts, downstream contracts, oil and gas trade contracts and the procedure of their drawing up, agreeing, concluding and approving. The study reflects the content of objective operation contracts as a specific type of petroleum contracts and their main categories: concession, investment, production and service contracts. The authors reveal the content of new-generation Iranian petroleum contracts (IPC). The research methodology is based on general scientific methods (dialectics, comparison, analysis, synthesis, analogy, deduction, induction, etc.) and specific methods (formal-logical, dogmatic, formal-legal, and the method of interpretation of law), the comparative-legal method, the method of state-legal modeling, the historical-legal and system methods, prognostication, etc. The authors come to the following conclusions: firstly, Iranian subsurface resources are made allowable for use on the basis of a petroleum contract; secondly, the procedure of making subsurface resources allowable for use is a formalized procedure of concluding petroleum contracts; thirdly, the access to subsurface resources in Iran is possible only subject to agreed conditions of a petroleum contract, based on a standard project, with the Government of Iran and the Iranian Economic Council and final approval by the Ministry of petroleum upon indirect agreeing of the conditions of subsurface resources use with the Parliament of Iran; fourthly, the Parliament of Iran indirectly agrees upon the conclusion of petroleum contracts and each stage of their performance (petroleum operations) by means of regulation of incomes and expenditures of petroleum activities in the laws “On annual budget”; fifthly, the legal regime of subsurface resources use in the Islamic Republic of Iran is in a transitive state, and legislation on natural resources is a complex sector, which combines the interests of public and private companies in the context of growing public influence in this sphere; sixthly, Iran is planning a gradual transformation from agreement-based system of subsurface resources use to a licensing or a mixed system, from an indirect procedure of making subsurface resources allowable for use by foreign investors to a direct procedure, which would be realized without the involvement of the National Iranian Oil Company. The scientific novelty of the study consists in the fact that it considers the reasons for and the procedure of making Iranian subsurface resources allowable for use and the state-legal mechanism of subsurface resources use management including the checks and balances model in realization of the sovereign right of Iran to use subsurface resources within its water area and state territory.