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Contemporary Practice of the United States Relating to International Law

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 February 2017

Marian Nash Leich*
Affiliation:
Department of State

Abstract

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Type
Other
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1990

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References

1 55 Fed. Reg. 13, 897–98 (1990).

1 Authority of the Federal Bureau of Investigation to Seize Suspects Abroad: Hearing Before the Sub-comm. on Civil and Constitutional Rights of the House Comm. on the Judiciary, 101st Cong., 1st Sess. (1989); to be found, also, at Dept. of State File No. P90 0071-0004, 0013/0021. William P. Barr, Assistant Attorney General, Office of Legal Counsel, appeared on behalf of the Department of Justice. His prepared statement is at id., 0022/0036, and will be published in the Hearing, supra.

Excerpts of the statements of Judge Sofaer and Mr. Barr, together with a discussion of the issues, appeared in Lowenfeld, U.S. Law Enforcement Abroad: The Constitution and International Law, Continued, 84 AJIL 444, 484–88 (1990).

1 On August 20, 1986, in Islamic Republic of Iran and United States of America (Case A15), ITL 63–A15 (I:G)–FT, 12 Iran-U.S. Claims Tribunal Rep. 40 (1986 II), the Full Tribunal (6-3) determined, among other things, that implementation of General Principle A of the General Declaration of Algiers (the first, basic Declaration, initialed on January 19, 1981) required the two parties to enter into negotiation immediately and to negotiate in good faith with a view to achieving agreement: (1) on the claims then pending against Dollar Account No. 1 and on the amount that should consequently be kept in the account to pay them; (2) on the amount not so needed (which upon conclusion of the agreement should be transferred to Iran); and (3) as part of the agreement, on the terms of a release by Iran of all claims against the United States for administration of Dollar Account No. 1.

By an award signed and filed on May 4, 1987, the Full Tribunal, acting on a request by the Islamic Republic of Iran, ordered the transfer by the United States (i.e., by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York) to Iran (i.e., to the Dollar Account of Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran at the Bank of England) of the excess of U.S. $63 million, plus the interest earned thereon since September 30, 1986 (the date of the calculation by the United States of the amount of the pending claims), up to and including the date of transfer. (The parties had agreed that the amount of U.S. $63 million provisionally should be kept in the account for the full and final settlement of the pending claims.) AWD 306–A15(I:G)–FT, 14 id. at 311, 319 (1987 I). On May 13, 1987, the United States returned the amount of $454,390,207.71 to Iran from Dollar Account No. 1.

2 On April 13, 1988, Bank Markazi Jomhouri Islami Iran and the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, acting as fiscal agent of the United States, signed an agreement that listed the remaining claims against Dollar Account No. 1 and assigned a certain amount of funds in the account to cover the maximum amount of each claim, the total claims against the account as of September 30, 1986, having been $63 million. The agreement provided that as each claimant settled with Iran, Iran would receive the difference between the settlement amount and the maximum amount assigned to that claim. On April 15, 1988, pursuant to the agreement, Iran received $37,900,000 from Dollar Account No. 1, to reflect settlements made since September 30, 1986. By December 1989, 30 of the 44 claims listed in the 1988 agreement had been settled, and the balance in the account was less than $10 million.

John H. Knox

[Mr. Knox is an Attorney-Adviser in the Office of the Legal Adviser, Office of International Claims and Investment Disputes, Interpretive and Official Iranian Claims Division.] For the agreement, see Dept. of State File No. P90 0080-2214/2274.

3 United States-Iranian Relations: Hearing Before the Subcomm. on Europe and the Middle East of the House Comm. on Foreign Affairs, 101st Cong., 1st Sess. 18, 19–24 (1989).

4 Id. at 25–27.

5 Id. at 64–71.

1 S. Treaty Doc. No. 8, 101st Cong., 2d Sess., at V-VIII (1990). On the basis of a recommendation by the Governing Bodies of the World Intellectual Property Organization, committees of experts were convened in March and November 1988, to prepare for the diplomatic conference held in Geneva, April 10–20, 1989, at which the Treaty was adopted.