Abstract
The matter of determining the applicable law that governs copyright is a thorny issue in the jurisprudence of private international law. This is due to the nature of the place to which this right is given, since this right is not material property. Also, in most countries the national legislator has not established a special rule for intellectual property and it became hard to determine specific law that govern author's rights. This issue has resulted in a jurisprudential dispute embodied in several theories, including those who take the application of the law of the original state of intellectual work and others that take the application of the law of the State where protection is required. In addition, some international conventions have been organized this case and the most important of these are the ''Berne Convention'' on the Protection of Literary and Artistic Works of 1886, and the Universal Convention on the Protection of Copyright (the Geneva Convention of 1952). In this issue, some legislators attempt to make a comparative laws to establish rules governing and regulating such this matters. The Iraqi legislator attempted to protect copyright under the amended Copyright Act No. 3 of 1971, which provided for cases where Iraqi and foreign authors could enjoy the protection prescribed by law. The Iraqi legislator failed to address the issue of law applicable to copyright in case of non- Applicability of the Iraqi law.