A review of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal

Abstract

This article is intended to analyse the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal by considering its origins and decisions in order to find out to what extend it has been successful in the settlement of international commercial and inter-state disputes between Iran and the United States. The Tribunal work is evaluated to determine whether it has been a workable pattern of Western-style legal institution for further instances of politically changed circumstances. In its arguments and expositions, I will discuss whether the Tribunal is an international arbitral tribunal created to resolve private law disputes or an interstate arbitration body typically established by treaty. I will argue that the Tribunal should be considered as an instrument of public international law, because it is based on an international treaty between sovereign states. Through this study I will examine the question of the Tribunal’s jurisdiction and its application of international law as compared with the decisions of other international tribunals. It also considers an internal question to the theory of the governing law to the resolution of disputes.