Unlikely compromise : a history of the Iran-United States Claim Tribunal, 1981-2015

Abstract

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal was one of the twentieth century’s most important tribunals of international arbitration.1 Furthermore, it stood apart from the likes of the arbitral tribunals following the peace settlements of WWII, in that the parties involved were two hostile states without diplomatic ties.2 To illustrate the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal’s influential place in international law and politics this paper will be broken up into three major sections. First, will be a recount and explanation of how and why the Claims Tribunal came into existence. Second, the internal structuring and the jurisdiction of the Claims Tribunal will be described and explained. Finally, this paper will provide a summary of the Claims Tribunal’s history of operations, with case studies to display how the Tribunal operates and comes to different decisions. By doing so, this paper will show how even two countries that seemingly hate each other can still come to compromising agreements in dire circumstances.