Rechtsnatur und Spruchpraxis der Schiedsinstanz für Naturalrestitution

Abstract

The Arbitration Panel for In Rem Restitution of Publicly Owned Property, created by the Joint Statement of the Governments of Austria and of the United States of America of 17 January 2001 (Washington Agreement) and formally established by the Austrian Federal Law on the Compensation Fund (Entschadigungsfondsgesetz), was an international body consisting of three members, two of them nominated by the contracting parties, with a chairman agreed upon by the two arbitrators. On the basis of individual claims filed by victims of the National Socialist era or by their heirs for the restitution of real estates seized by the Nazi regime and still in public ownership on 17 January 2001, the Panel had to consider supportive evidence and relevant findings of the Austrian Historical Commission and – as a result – make recommendations for restitution to the competent Austrian Federal Minister. However, previous relevant decisions of Austrian authorities or agreements of the parties themselves were not subject to revision, unless the Panel decided unanimously that those settlements constituted an extreme injustice. After having considered 2,307 claims in the period of seventeen years, the Arbitration Panel concluded its work at the end of August 2018.