Richard B. Lillich

International Claims: Their Settlement by Lump Sum Agreements, 1975-1995

In 1975, Richard Lillich of the University of Virginia Law School a n d Burns Weston of the University of Iowa Law School p r epa red an extremely useful, two-volume compilat ion of 139 lump sum claims agreements, which was published as volume 13 of the Procedural Aspects of Internat ional Law Monograph Series. Before Lillichs untimely dea th in 1996, significant progress had been made in collecting additional l ump sum agreements—often directly from foreign-ministry legal offices—for an upda te of the 1975 book. Weston a n d David Bede rman of Emory University Law School comple ted this new compilat ion (volume 23 in the same monograph series), which includes 69 l ump sum agreements and an analytical introduction of nearly a h u n d r e d pages. T h e authors are to be c o m m e n d e d . Academics, practi t ioners, and gove r n m e n t officials would have difficulty finding many of the agreements present in this compilation. T h e volume should therefore serve as an invaluable reference tool.Extending this analysis of their acclaimed 1975 work, Weston and Lillich (with the addition of David Bederman) bring the log of international claims up to 1995. This volume provides authoritative translations and annotations of lump sum agreements concluded between 1975 and 1995 (and hitherto unavailable agreements concluded before 1975). Detailed commentary includes analysis of such issues as eligible claimants, substantive bases of claims, and standards of compensation under the agreements. The authors leave no doubt of the continued importance of lump sum agreements to international claims practice and the dynamic law of State responsibility. Published under the auspices of the Procedural Aspects of International Law Institute (PAIL).For more information about PAIL please go to pail-institute.org. Published under the Transnational Publishers imprint.

LUMP SUM AGREEMENTS

This chapter describes the concept of lump-sum agreements and related international laws. Under a lump-sum agreement, the respondent state pays the claimant state a fixed amount in settlement of certain claims, with the latter generally establishing a national claims commission to determine their validity and amount. In assessing the significance—especially the juridical impact—of the nearly 200 lump-sum agreements that have been concluded since World War II, one must start with the overriding factor in their favor, namely, their ability to wipe the slate clean. An examination of lump-sum agreements reveals an extraordinary consistency between their provisions, and the decisions of mixed claims commissions and the results of diplomatic espousal.

The Deliberative Process of the International Court of Justice: A Preliminary Critique and Some Possible Reforms

The deliberative process by which the International Court of Justice (ICJ) reaches its decisions, although a matter of public record,1 is largely ignored today even by specialists.2 Several reasons account for this situation: the limited availability and somewhat opaque nature of the Court’s published procedures;3 the lack of practical interest in this aspect of the Court’s task;4 the reluctance of judges in the past to discuss, at least in print, any aspect of the Court’s decisionmaking process;5 and the impression held in some quarters that this process is something of a mystery.6 Consequently, few students of the Court have more than a hazy impression of how it makes its decisions.7

The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal : its contribution to the law of state responsibility

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 tribunals 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.

The Valuation of Nationalized Property in International Law.

This collection of essays edited and contributed by Professor Lillich of the University of Virginia Law School, around the central theme of valuation of nationalized property is a welcome and timely addition to the literature. In underdeveloped countries Nationalism, regardless of its political stripe, will continue to approve the cosmetic cure of nationalization for as long as deep-rooted social and economic problems remain unsolved. The issues raised by this book extend well beyond the interesting, but narrow confines of valuation, per se. There is an unsuccessful attempt to reduce the conflict to narrower grounds in order to avoid the more complex, emotional and troublesome issues of compensation and nationalization. Professor Lillich asserts in the preface that the key issue in settling disputes is agreement on methods of valuing property and not the principle of compensation. This statement is convincing only where the latter principle is not disputed. Recent expropriations in Chile point out that methods of valuation are meaningless, where ideology comes into direct conflict with the principle of compensation. This does not mean that a settlement is impossible. It does mean, however, that where political and social theory eschew the concept of private property, there is either little room to agree about the technical and economic aspects of the problem, or those aspects will be tailored to fit the cloth of political and social theory.