The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal is arguably the most significant arbitral institution of the twentieth century. Although the completion of its last few cases could take a long time, the Tribunal's impressive work must be made available now as a guide to the resolution of ongoing disputes and for future tribunals. The Tribunal has, by this point, disposed of well over 98 percent of its caseload. Little more remains for its participants to learn, but the Tribunal shows no signs of fading away. Both of the two States Parties, for different reasons, see greater advantage in the Tribunal's prolongation than in its elimination. The authors have succeeded in dealing with all of the most deserving Tribunal subjects. Moreover, their intimate involvement in and knowledge of the Tribunal ensure that their book is a fascinating, important, and indispensable contribution to the literature of International Law. This is a definitive book on a monumental event in the law and in history at the close of a century. "The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal" was awarded the ASIL Certificate of Merit.
Examining the Tribunal’s structure, operations and evolution in search of the underlying patterns that characterize such international institutions, this valuable book records the diverse experiences and judgments of a group of outstanding lawyers, each of whom has played a significant role at some stage of the Tribunal’s proceedings. The essays are grouped in three distinct stages in the Tribunal’s history. The first group deals with the creation of the Tribunal, building upon the bare-boned framework laid down by the Claims Settlement Declaration. The second deals with the Tribunal at work, processing and deciding cases during the period when it gave greatest emphasis to resolving large commercial claims. The third deals with the present situation where the Tribunal has taken a docket first dominated by claims of U.S.-Iranian dual nationals against Iran and then by a small group of large and difficult claims between the two governments. Published under the auspices of the American Society of International Law. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.
The object of this work is to preserve and make accessible the substantial body of Awards and Decisions rendered by the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal from 1981, when it was established, to the present.
The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, which has been called the most significant arbitral body in history, celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2006. As of mid-2005, the Tribunal had issued over 800 awards and decisions--a total of 600 awards (including partial awards and awards on agreed terms), 83 interlocutory and interim awards, and 133 decisions--in resolving almost 3000 cases. The Tribunal's awards have been described as the most important body of international arbitration jurisprudence. The significance of these decisions as persuasive authority is second to none. In this volume, experts in the field identify and comment on the Tribunal awards that are most important for international arbitration; i.e., the cases that everyone needs to know for investor-state and international commercial arbitration. The book approaches the Tribunal's work from a forward-looking perspective with emphasis on the continuing usefulness of awards and decisions issued by the Tribunal in international arbitration practice. In addition to original contributions from an array of eminent authors (all of whom have extensive experience at the Tribunal and/or in investor-State and international arbitration), this book includes excerpts of key awards discussed in the contributions, as well as appendices with foundational documents for the Tribunal. CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE: Roger P. Alford, Pepperdine University School of Law, former Legal Assistant, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal David J. Bederman, Emory Law School, former Legal Assistant, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal David D. Caron, C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law, University of California, Berkeley, former Legal Assistant, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Jack J. Coe, Jr. Pepperdine University School of Law, former Legal Assistant, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Christopher R. Drahozal, John M. Rounds Professor of Law, University of Kansas School of Law; former Legal Assistant, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Christopher S. Gibson, Suffolk University Law School; former Legal Assistant, Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Mark R. Joelson, Law Office of Mark R. Joelson Lucinda A. Low, Steptoe & Johnson Andrea J. Menaker, Office of the Legal Advisor, U.S. Department of State Sean D. Murphy, George Washington University Law School, former U.S. Agent to the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Daniel M. Price, Sidley Austin, former Deputy U.S. Agent to the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Jeffrey F. Pryce, Steptoe & Johnson
This publication is a concise and colourful presentation of the authors' first-hand experience with the remarkable, stormy procedural history of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal in The Hague. Examining each rule in turn, the authors examine the first intent of the UNCITRAL framers, as evident from the travaux preparatoires, and then analyze how the Rules were interpreted, changed and applied at the tribunal. This volume is destined to become a standard reference on the procedural aspects of international commercial arbitration. Parties involved in arbitration, their counsel, and others interested in international practice will treasure this explication of the pitfalls and ambiguities in the real-life application of the Rules, including the role of international political intrigue, in the highly charged atmosphere of multinational proceedings.
Written for lawyers and other legal scholars, this book may be tough slogging for nonspecialists but is worth the effort. A fair and judicious presentation of the tribunal's work, it demonstrates how the fallout from even the most explosive interstate confrontations can be cleaned up, in part and post facto. Foreign Affairs, July/August 1998 Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.
Domestic lawyers are, above all, officers of the court. By contrast, the public international lawyer representing states before international tribunals is torn between loyalties to the state and loyalties to international law. As the stakes increase for the state concerned, the tension between these loyalties can become acute and lead to practices that would be condemned in developed national legal systems but have hitherto been ignored by international tribunals in international legal scholarship. They are the 'dirty stories' of international law. This detailed and contextually sensitive presentation of eight important cases before a variety of public international tribunals dissects some of the reasons for the resort to fraudulent evidence in international litigation and the profession's baffling reaction. Fraudulent evidence is resorted to out of greed, moral mediocrity or inherent dishonesty. In public international litigation, by contrast, the reasons are often more complex, with roots in the dynamics of international politics.
Although short of attaining the ideal of a ‘substitute for war’, arbitration has largely succeeded in peacefully resolving international disputes. Beyond that, arbitral commitments and arbitral processes have deepened civilized and cooperative international relations, promoted the development of international law and international institutions, and facilitated the well-being of mankind in multiple important ways. Particulars of that proposition are set forth in this one-of-a-kind book. Each of the fourteen chapters is devoted to one landmark international arbitration case, primarily state-to-state but also includes commercial disputes with geopolitical dimensions. Each chapter is written by a practitioner and/or academic of high international standing. The project was initiated by the Stockholm Chamber of Commerce, which celebrates its centennial in 2017. By focusing on landmark cases, the book contributes to a continued dynamic development of dispute resolution in complicated or sensitive geopolitical contexts, and demonstrates how arbitration has and can continue to play an important role for international relations. Practitioners, political decision makers, and academics in any part of the world with an interest in international arbitration and international law or political history and policy on an international level will find it not only deeply informative but also immensely useful.
The law governing the international claims of dual nationals relates to, and is influenced by, the wider subject of the individual s standing at the international level. But while the latter had, as a result of modern trends in human rights, hugely improved as from the middle of the last century, no occasion to test its impact on such claims had arisen prior to the 1980s, when the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal - justifiably described as the most influential arbitral institution in the history of international adjudication - first became involved with the issue. The significance of the Tribunal s jurisprudence on the subject is not, however, limited to the judicial support it gives to the international rights of the individual. Having made its basic findings of law on the subject, the Tribunal has proceeded to apply them, for some twenty years, to a host of Cases of widely different characters. The result is a wealth of material - comprehensively reviewed in this book for the first time - which is likely to be of some benefit to those interested in this area of international law.
