Jurisprudential-legal analysis of preserving the value of money in banking facilities and its relationship with exchange justice

Abstract

Preserving the value of money in banking facilities means using contractual or legal mechanisms to compensate for the decrease in purchasing power caused by inflation in the repayment of monetary debt. The relationship of this concept to exchange justice concerns whether adjusting the repayment amount in order to maintain the economic balance of the exchange is consistent with the standards of Imami jurisprudence and the legal principles governing contracts or whether it conflicts with rules such as the prohibition of usury, the necessity of contracts, and the principle of nominal value of money. The main issue of the present study is to investigate the possibility or impossibility of a jurisprudential-legal justification for the condition of preserving the value of money in banking facilities and to explain its relationship with exchange justice in the Iranian legal system. This research was conducted with a descriptive-analytical method and an ijtihad-critical approach, and the data collection tools included library studies, analysis of legal documents, jurisprudential opinions, and advisory opinions. In the analytical section, the bases for the possibility of adjusting monetary debt have been evaluated by using rules such as no harm, negation of hardship, clauses included in the contract, and the rule of justice. The research gap in this area is the lack of a coherent analysis of the relationship between exchange justice and inflation compensation mechanisms within the framework of Imami jurisprudence and Iranian banking law; in such a way that most studies have either dealt solely with the economic aspect or have discussed it from a jurisprudential perspective without any connection to the theory of exchange justice. The research findings show that if we distinguish between usury and compensation for the decrease in the real value of property, it is possible to justify maintaining the value of money in order to achieve exchange justice by designing transparent contractual terms based on official indicators. Finally, it is suggested that the legislator should prevent interpretative conflicts and practical injustices by formulating explicit regulations on the indexation of monetary debt and monitoring banking contracts.