International claims commissions have, over the last few decades, established themselves as important and permanent fixtures in international adjudication. This book provides a comprehensive review and analysis of the workings and mechanics of claims commissions to assess their success and predict their utility in the future. The book authors examines the legal framework of an international claims commission and the basic elements its processing procedure, as well as exploring the difficulties and challenges associated with operating costs, remedies and compliance with judgments.

This volume from the International Bureau of the PCA presents a collection of studies on innovative responses to the unique challenges of resolving large numbers of claims arising from common, often tragic, circumstances-mass claims. The mass claims processes discussed in this volume were created in the aftermath of war or other atrocities, and redress is often an important component of settlement for the victims. The authors consider mass claims processes both from a conceptual and a practical perspective through lessons learned over twenty-five years. This book covers innovations to speed mass claims processes by means of new standards of proof and the use of information technology, as well as specific mass claims processes: the United Nations Compensation Commission; the Austrian General Settlement Fund; the French Commission for the Compensation of Victims of Spoliation; the German Forced Labour Compensation Programme; and the reparations provisions of the Statute of the International Criminal Court. From a North American perspective, authors address the litigation of mass claims involving slavery under United States law, the United States Indian Claims Commission, and the successful completion of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. In addition, Volume 1 of the Final Report of the Special Master of the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund is reprinted in its entirety. The responses of the international community to current issues of compensation and reparations, the role of civil society actors in reparations legislation, and recent instruments adopted by the Council of Europe and the United Nations Commission on Human Rights are also reviewed.

Mass claims have historically allowed victims of wrongdoing on an extensive scale to be compensated for losses suffered. This insightful book surveys and evaluates both domestic and international mass claims processes, delineating their successes and failures in providing this compensation.

This book provides detailed analyses of systems that have been established to provide reparations to victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes, and the way in which these systems have worked and are working in practice. Many of these systems are described and assessed for the first time in an academic publication. The publication draws upon a groundbreaking Conference organised by the Clemens Nathan Research Centre (CNRC) and REDRESS at the Peace Palace in The Hague, with the support of the Dutch Carnegie Foundation. Both CNRC and REDRESS had become very concerned about the extreme difficulty encountered by most victims of serious international crimes in attempting to access effective and enforceable remedies and reparation for harm suffered. In discussions between the Conference organisers and Judges and officials of the International Criminal Court, it became ever more apparent that there was a great need for frank and open exchanges on the question of effective reparation, between the representatives of victims, of NGOs and IGOs, and other experts. It was clear to all that the many current initiatives of governments and regional and international institutions to afford reparations to victims of genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes could benefit greatly by taking into full account the wide and varied practice that had been built up over several decades. In particular, the Hague Conference sought to consider in detail the long experience of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany (the Claims Conference) in respect of Holocaust restitution programmes, as well as the practice of truth commissions, arbitral proceedings and a variety of national processes to identify common trends, best practices and lessons. This book thus explores the actions of governments, as well as of national and international courts and commissions in applying, processing, implementing and enforcing a variety of reparations schemes and awards. Crucially, it considers the entire complex of issues from the perspective of the beneficiaries - survivors and their communities - and from the perspective of the policy-makers and implementers tasked with resolving technical and procedural challenges in bringing to fruition adequate, effective and meaningful reparations in the context of mass victimisation.

Established in order to consider legal claims resulting from the significant historic events, Mass Claims Processes have become increasingly important phenomena in international dispute resolution. Processes covered in this book include the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, the UN Compensation Commission (relating to Iraq's invasion of Kuwait) and Mass Claims Processes relating to the Holocaust, the conflicts in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the war between Eritrea and Ethiopia. The book is structured around forty-seven basic topics that typically arise when creating an international Mass Claims Process, offering commentary on the ways in which the various Processes have dealt with each topic.

Three experts address reparation for victims of armed conflict, drawing on international law practice, human rights courts, and domestic law.

The Politics of International Criminal Law is an interdisciplinary collection of original research that examines the often noted but understudied political dimensions of International Criminal Law, and the challenges this nascent legal regime faces to its legitimacy in world affairs.