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Determining whether the Iran-US Claims Tribunal (the Tribunal) is a truly public international tribunal is not merely an interesting theoretical exercise. The Tribunal's legal character has significant ramifications, for example on enforceability at the international level, the applicability and scope of
res judicata regarding dismissed claims, and the evidentiary value of its jurisprudence, particularly pursuant to Article 38(1) of the ICJ statute. This title explores the legal character of the Tribunal and its status under the law of peaceful settlement of international disputes.
The public or private nature of the Tribunal is a matter of significant controversy. Certain peculiarities of the Tribunal, namely its accessibility to private claimants, the exclusion of the exhaustion of local remedy rule, and the regime provided for the execution of its awards suggests that it is not, in fact, wholly public. Conversely, the author analyses the Tribunal under a three-part test for public international character - (1) international treaty as origin, (2) applicable law international in nature, (3) controlling parties subject to international law - and finds that it meets all three criteria. In doing so, the author admittedly counters the apparent position of the Tribunal itself that its nature is a hybrid of both public and private elements.
The International Law Character of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal includes: - a historical survey on international tribunals; an analysis of the adverse arguments; and - a detailed discussion of the Tribunal's practice on expropriation cases to give a concrete example of its functioning on international law level, is considered in detail in Part Three. The controversial nature of the author's thesis, the thoroughness of the analysis, and the importance of the Tribunal itself make this a book of interest and import for academics who keep abreast of international law developments.
