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MIXING LEGAL CULTURES IN INTERNATIONAL ARBITRATION 35 INTRODUCTION At an early stage of the work of the Tribunal, the late Richard B. Lillich characterized the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal as the most significant body in arbitral history.1 Now that the Tribunal, after more than 20 years of its existence, seems to be coming towards the end of its work, with only a few cases left to decide or to settle, it may be the right moment to reconsider this assessment with some more hindsight and discuss the lessons that may be learnt from the Tribunal in mixing legal cultures.2 Much has been written on the Tribunal in general as well as on more specific aspects of its work.3 Among the more recent literature, the 2 Mixing Legal Cultures in International Arbitration: The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Peter Malanczuk 1. R. B. Lillich (ed.), The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal 1981–1983, 1984. 2. The present author was Legal Assistant to the President of the Tribunal, Professor KarlHeinz Böckstiegel, and to Professor Bengt Broms, Chairman of Chamber One, from 1986 to 1989, and continued to work with Professor Böckstiegel on the finalization of cases concerning the expropriation of American oil companies for some years thereafter, while holding a Chair of International Law at the University of Amsterdam. The current chapter is based upon an earlier version published as Peter Malanczuk, “The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in The Hague — Some Reflections on a Unique Institution of International Dispute Settlement Moving towards the End of Its Work”, in: Volkmar Götz, Peter Selmer, and Rüdiger Wolfrum (eds.), Liber amicorum Günther Jaenicke — Zum 85. Geburtstag. (Vol. 135. Beiträge zum ausländischen öffentlichen Recht und Völkerrecht, Max Planck Institute for Comparative Public Law and International Law, Jochen Abr. Frowein/Rüdiger Wolfrum eds.). Berlin/Heidelberg/New York: Springer-Verlag, 1998, pp. 221–238. 3. See, for example, N. G. Ziadé, Selective Bibliography on the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, ICSID Review — Foreign Investment Law Journal 2 (1987), 534 et seq.; B. Maiwald, Das Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, 1987; K.-H. Böckstiegel, Zur Bedeutung des IranUnited States Claims Tribunal für die Entwicklung des internationalen Rechts, in: Festschrift 36 PETER MALANCZUK extremely valuable survey of the jurisprudence of the Tribunal by Judge George H. Aldrich, one of the American members of the Tribunal from the very beginning, should be specially mentioned.4 As to many details concerning the establishment, operation and case law of the Tribunal reference can be made to the existing publications. The following is therefore restricted to a rather basic outline of the most important features of the Tribunal to provide the reader with the necessary background. It then addresses the output of the Tribunal. Finally, an attempt is made to briefly evaluate the work of the Tribunal. BACKGROUND The Tribunal was created by the Algiers Declarations5 in 1981 as part of der Rechtswissenschaftlichen Fakultät zur 600-Jahr-Feier der Universität Köln, 1998, 610 et seq.; Charles N. Brower, The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal After Seven Years: A Retrospective View from the Inside, Arbitration Journal, No. 34 (December 1988), 16 et seq.; N. Wühler, Zur Bedeutung des Iran-United States Claims Tribunal für die Rechtsfortbildung, in: K.-H. Böckstiegel (ed.), Rechtsfortbildung durch internationale Schiedsgerichtsbarkeit, 1989, 94–124; K.-H. Böckstiegel, Zur Praxis der internationalen Streiterledigung. Überlegungen am Ende der Tätigkeit als Präsident des Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, in: G. Ress (ed.), Wissenschaftliches Kolloquium zum Völkerrecht, Europarecht und Verfassungsrecht anlässlich des 75. Geburtstages von Professor Dr. Günther Jaenicke (Universität des Saarlandes. Vorträge, Reden und Berichte aus dem Europa-Institut / Nr. 166), 1989, 5–25; R. Khan, The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, 1990; Charles N. Brower, The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, RdC 224 (1990-V), 123–396; J. A. Westberg, International Transactions and Claims Involving Government Parties — Case Law of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, 1991; A. Avanessian, The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal in Action, 1993; W. Mapp, The Iran-United States Claims Tribunal: The First Ten Years 1981–1991, 1993; A. Mouri, Striking a Balance between the Finality of Awards and the Right to a Fair Judgment: What is the Contribution of the Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal, The Finnish Yearbook of International Law 4 (1993), 1–97; A. Mouri, Aspects of the IranUnited States Claims Tribunal, Asian Yearbook of...

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