Challenges of the Seventh Development Plan from the Perspective of Economic Public Law

Economic public law is one of the important dimensions of public law that has been theoretically discussed and examined; however, its explanation and analysis within the framework of development plans in Iran has been somewhat neglected. Considering the growing significance of this branch of law and the current economic conditions of society, the objective of the present article is to examine the challenges of the Seventh Development Plan in relation to economic public law. The methodology of the article is descriptive-analytical. The materials and data are qualitative in nature, and content was collected through note-taking and document analysis. The findings indicate that the key challenges facing economic public law in the Seventh Development Plan include: legislative system challenges stemming from the Constitution, the Law on Planning and Budgeting, and the internal bylaws of the Islamic Consultative Assembly; challenges related to the objectives and nature of the formulated policies, including the inconsistency between realities and program goals, the incompatibility of program objectives with economic theory, lack of internal coherence within the plan and its policies, excessive volume of policies, and absence of priority-setting; as well as practical and executive challenges and issues related to oversight mechanisms. The conclusion is that the realization of economic public law within development plans—specifically the Seventh Development Plan—requires an appropriate legal framework. To this end, it is necessary to adopt the principle of free trade and a free market, to limit government intervention in the economy to a regulatory role, to implement competition law and privatization in a precise and authentic manner, and to ensure the principles of proportionality and equality are upheld.