Analysis of the economic and legal effects of sanctions against Iran's oil industry

Economic sanctions have been and continue to be applied extensively against Iran.  It is therefore, important for us to analyze the economic and legal aspects of sanctions. The paper is organized around two questions. First, we seek to understand the impact of sanctions on Iranian crude oil production and subsequently on social welfare? In the next step, we examine the effects of changes in oil production on fundamental human rights. Sanctioning countries claim that by imposing well targeted sanctions negative side effects, particularly impact on vulnerable populations can be minimized. However, this study indicates that sanctions against Iran particularly on the oil industry have many negative impacts on social welfare.  In this study we have used econometrics tools and OLS methodology to determine the effect of sanctions as an explanatory variable on oil production as a dependent variable for the period 1970 to 2012.  We have resorted to resolving the problems found in the estimated regressions in order to increase their reliability.