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The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission and the Adjudication of International Claims*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2017

Edward D. Re
Edward D. Re*
Affiliation:
Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States
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Extract

In the ever expanding panorama of international law, few areas have been more intriguing to the scholar or of greater concern to the international lawyer than the international responsibility of states for injuries to aliens.

Type
Notes and Comments
Information
American Journal of International Law , Volume 56 , Issue 3 , July 1962 , pp. 728 - 734
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of International Law 1962

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Footnotes

*

In substance, this note is a review of International Claims: Their Adjudication by National Commissions, by Richard B. Lillich (Syracuse, Syracuse University Press, 1962. pp. xvi, 140. Index. $5.00). Since the work of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission occupies a major portion of the book, Chairman Re has contributed additional materials concerning the Commission and its activities.—Ed.

References

1 See authorities cited in Be, “ The Nationalization of Foreign-Owned Property,” 36 Minn. Law Rev. 323, 327 (1952), and “Nationalization and the Investment of Capital Abroad,” 42 Georgetown Law J. 44 (1953).

2 Anderson, , “Basis of the Law Against Confiscating Foreign-Owned Property,” 21 A.J.I.L. 525, 526 (1927)Google Scholar.

3 Secretary of State Hughes, Report, Mexican Claims Convention, quoted in Buell, International Relations 389 (1925).

4 Dept. of State Press Release, Aug. 25, 1938; 32 A.J.I.L. Supp. at 191, 193 (1938). See Rubin, , “Nationalization and Compensation: A Comparative Approach,” 17 U. Chicago Law Rev. 458, 460 (1950)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

5 Settlement of Claims by the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States and Its Predecessors iii (1955).

6 Lillich, International Claims: Their Adjudication by National Commissions 3 (1962) (hereinafter cited as Lillich).

7 Lillich 20; Hudson, International Tribunals 192 (1944).

8 Lillich 8.

9 Jessup in Proceedings, Second Summer Conference on International Law, Cornell Law School 37 (1958).

10 See references to writings of Domke, Briggs and Ralston at Lillich 21.

11 Ibid. 23.

12 Special Report of William E. Fuller 114–115 (1907).

13 Ibid, at 112.

14 Ibid. at 114–115 (emphasis in original by Fuller). Professor Jessup, writing about the future of international law-making, after commenting on the rôle of the Prize Court, notes that the Court of Claims at times “ sat in a role which it considered to be indistinguishable from that of an international arbitral tribunal.” Jessup, “ The Future of International Law Making,” in Legal Institutions Today and Tomorrow 211 (Paulsen ed., 1959), citing Royal Holland Lloyd v. U. S., 73 Ct. Cl. 722 (1931).

15 See references to the statements of Nielsen, Drucker, Domke and others at Lillich 117–118.

16 Ibid, at 2.

17 Ibid, at 114.

18 Ibid, at 52.

19 Ibid.

20 Ibid, at 115.

21 Foreign Claims Settlement Commission Reg., 45 C.P.E. § 531.6(d) (1959) (Hearings; issues and burden of proof).

22 14 Foreign Claims Settlement Commission Semiannual Rep. 14 (Jan.-June, 1961).

23 Bode, , “ The International Claims Commission of the United States,” 47 A.J.I.L. 615, 621 (1953)Google Scholar.

24 Lillich 42–43. Although legally possible, it is unlikely that non-lawyers will be appointed to the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission. Of the 18 Commissioners appointed to the Commission and its predecessors, the International Claims Commission and the War Claims Commission, all but three have been lawyers. Not only are the present members of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission all lawyers, but as a matter of Commission policy only lawyers are permitted to serve as staff attorneys.

25 Lillich at 43.

26 Ibid. The “ lag ” is not quite as conspicuous as would appear from Professor Lillich’s chart, wherein the salary for Commissioners for the year 1960 is shown to be $15,000. The salary of the members of the Foreign Claims Settlement Commission is $20,000 and that of its Chairman $20,500. 70 Stat. 737–38 (1956), 5 U.S.C. § 2204 (10), §2205 (45) (1959) (Federal Executives Pay Provisions).

27 The most important cases mentioned are de Vegvar v. Gillilland, 228 F. 2d 640 (D.C. Cir., 1955), cert, denied, 350 U.S. 994 (1956); Dayton v. Gillilland, 242 F . 2d 227 (D.C. Cir., 1956), cert, denied, 355 U. S. 813 (1957); American and European Agencies, Inc. v. Gillilland, 247 F. 2d 95 (D.C. Cir., 1956), cert, denied, 355 U. S. 884 (1957); Haas v. Humphrey, 246 F. 2d 682 (D.C. Cir., 1957), cert, denied, 355 U. S. 854 (1957); Zutich v. Gillilland, 254 F . 2d 464 (6th Cir., 1958) ; First Nat’l City Bank v. Gillilland, 257 F. 2d 223 (D.C. Cir., 1958), cert, denied, 358 U. S. 837 (1958). An excellent discussion of the non-reviewability of the decisions of the Commission may be found in Coerper, , “The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission and Judicial Review,” 50 A.J.I.L. 868 (1956)CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Note the consistent denial of certiorari in the cases cited above.

28 Lillich 70.

29 Ibid, at 71.

30 Ibid, at 100–101.

31 Ibid. at 118.

32 Ibid, at ix.

33 Ibid, at x.

34 Ibid, at ix.