The Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA) is a non-UN intergovernmental organization located in The Hague,Netherlands. Unlike a judicial court in the traditional sense,the PCA provides services of arbitral tribunal to resolve disputes that arise out of international agreements between member states,international organizations or private parties. The cases span a range of legal issues involving territorial and maritime boundaries,sovereignty,human rights,international investment,and international and regional trade. The PCA is constituted through two separate multilateral conventions with a combined membership of 122 states. It is not a United Nations agency,but a United Nations observer.
An amicus curiae is an individual or organization who is not a party to a legal case,but who is permitted to assist a court by offering information,expertise,or insight that has a bearing on the issues in the case. Whether an amicus brief will be considered is typically under the court's discretion. The phrase is legal Latin and the origin of the term has been dated to 1605–1615. The scope of amici curiae is generally found in the cases where broad public interests are involved and concerns regarding civil rights are in question.
The Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976 (FSIA) is a United States law,codified at Title 28,§§1330,1332,1391(f),1441(d),and 1602–1611 of the United States Code,that established criteria as to whether a foreign sovereign nation is immune from the jurisdiction of U.S. courts—federal or state. The Act also establishes specific procedures for service of process,attachment of property and execution of judgment in proceedings against a foreign state. The FSIA provides the exclusive basis and means to bring a civil suit against a foreign sovereign in the United States. It was signed into law by United States President Gerald Ford on October 21,1976.
United States of America v. Islamic Republic of Iran [1980] ICJ 1 is a public international law case brought to the International Court of Justice by the United States of America against Iran in response to the Iran hostage crisis,where United States diplomatic offices and personnel were seized by militant revolutionaries.
Wilfred Ngunjiri Nderitu is a former chair of the Governing Council of the Kenyan Section of the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ).
The American Civil Rights Union (ACRU) is an American legal organization founded by former Reagan Administration official Robert B. Carleson in 1998 as a conservative counter to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Established in 1977,Atlantic Legal Foundation,also known as ALF,is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit,nonpartisan public interest law firm that litigates individual liberty,deregulation,free enterprise,and private property rights. The foundation was started to pursue a “deep commitment to redressing the bias against business which manifests itself in favor of narrow ‘consumer’or ‘environmental’concerns.”ALF has argued against environmental and worker regulations promulgated by federal agencies and works to promote “school-choice”. Atlantic Legal provides legal representation,without fee,to certain individuals,corporations,trade associations,parents,scientists,and educators.
Linda Anita Carty is a Kittitian-American former schoolteacher who is on death row in Texas. In February 2002,she was sentenced to death for the abduction and murder in 2001 of 20-year-old Joana Rodriguez in order to steal Rodriguez's newborn son. Carty claimed she was framed by her co-defendants who were drug dealers because she had previously been an informant.
Peter Bowman "Bo" Rutledge is the Dean and the Herman E. Talmadge Chair of Law at the University of Georgia School of Law in Athens,Georgia. An American attorney,academic and a specialist in international business transactions,international dispute resolution,litigation,arbitration,and the U.S. Supreme Court,he served as a law clerk for Associate U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas in 1998.
Charles N. Brower is a former State Department official,international judge,and recognized expert in public international law and international dispute resolution. He has been a judge of the Iran–United States Claims Tribunal since 1983. He has also served as a Judge ad hoc in three cases before the International Court of Justice (ICJ) since 2014. He is currently affiliated with 20 Essex Street Chambers in London,UK.
United States v. Banki,685 F.3d 99 is a case related to the transfer of large amounts of money —totaling some $3.4 million —from Iran to the United States. Banki was charged with conspiracy to violate the Iranian Transactions Regulations and operate an unlicensed money-transmitting business and four other charges. Banki's defense argued these transfers were necessary to protect the family's assets.
Bank Markazi v. Peterson,578 U.S. ___ (2016),was a United States Supreme Court case that found that a law which only applied to a specific case,identified by docket number,and eliminated all of the defenses one party had raised does not violate the separation of powers in the United States Constitution between the legislative (Congress) and judicial branches of government. The plaintiffs,in the case had initially obtained judgments against Iran for its role in supporting state-sponsored terrorism,particularly the 1983 Beirut barracks bombings and 1996 Khobar Towers bombing,and sought execution against a bank account in New York held,through European intermediaries,on behalf of Bank Markazi,the Central Bank of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The plaintiffs obtained court orders preventing the transfer of funds from the account in 2008 and initiated their lawsuit in 2010. Bank Markazi raised several defenses,including that the account was not an asset of the bank,but rather an asset of its European intermediary,under both New York state property law and §201(a) of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. In response to concerns that existing laws were insufficient for the account to be used to settle the judgments,Congress added an amendment to a 2012 bill,codified after enactment as 22 U.S.C. § 8772,that identified the pending lawsuit by docket number,applied only to the assets in the identified case,and effectively abrogated every legal basis available to Bank Markazi to prevent the plaintiffs from executing their claims against the account. Bank Markazi then argued that § 8772 was an unconstitutional breach of the separation of power between the legislative and judicial branches of government,because it effectively directed a particular result in a single case without changing the generally applicable law. The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York and,on appeal,the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit both upheld the constitutionality of § 8772 and cleared the way for the plaintiffs to execute their judgments against the account,which held about $1.75 billion in cash.
Iranian frozen assets in international accounts are calculated to be worth between $100 billion and $120 billion. Almost $2 billion of Iran's assets are frozen in the United States. According to the Congressional Research Service,in addition to the money locked up in foreign bank accounts,Iran's frozen assets include real estate and other property. The estimated value of Iran's real estate in the U.S. and their accumulated rent is $50 million. Besides the assets frozen in the U.S.,some parts of Iran's assets are frozen around the world by the United Nations.
Jonathan F. Mitchell is an American attorney,academic,and former government official. From 2010 to 2015,he was the Solicitor General of Texas. He has argued five cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. He has served on the faculties of Stanford Law School,the University of Texas School of Law,the George Mason University School of Law,and the University of Chicago Law School. In 2018,he opened a private solo legal practice in Austin,Texas.
Rubin v. Islamic Republic of Iran,583 U.S. ___ (2018),was a United States Supreme Court case brought against the nation of Iran by the families of American victims of the Ben Yehuda Street bombings which occurred in September 1997. Under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976,nations cannot typically be sued unless the state can be proved to have provided support for terrorists or acts of terrorism. After a district judge ruled Iran owed $71.5 million to the families of the victims,the families brought several cases to court in an attempt to attach and execute on assets owned by the state of Iran located in the United States.
The Treaty of Amity,Economic Relations and Consular Rights between the United States and Iran was signed in Tehran on August 15,1955,received the consent of the U.S. Senate on July 11,1956 and entered into force on 16 June 1957. The treaty is registered by the United States to the United Nations on 20 December 1957. The official texts are in English and Persian. It is sealed by plenipotentiaries Selden Chapin (U.S.) and Mostafa Samiy (Iran). The Treaty has served as the jurisdictional basis for various international legal disputes between the United States and Iran,including the International Court of Justice (ICJ) cases Oil Platforms and Alleged Violations of the 1955 Treaty of Amity,Economic Relations and Consular Rights. In October 2018,the United States provided notice that it would be withdrawing from the Treaty following Iran's use of the Treaty as a basis to challenge the U.S. imposition of sanctions under the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) in the Alleged Violations case.
Alleged Violations of the 1955 Treaty of Amity,Economic Relations,and Consular Rights is the formal name of a case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Iran filed a lawsuit with the Hague-based ICJ against the United States,on 16 July 2018,mainly based on the 1955 Treaty of Amity signed between the two sides on 15 August 1955 and entered into force in 1957,well before the Islamic revolution of Iran. Iranian officials alleged that U.S. re-imposition of the nuclear sanctions was a violation of the treaty. Iran also filed a request for provisional measures. In response,the United States asserted that the lawsuit as "baseless" and vowed to oppose it. Almost a month later,the ICJ heard the provisional measures request. On 3 October 2018,the International Court of Justice issued a provisional measures order requiring the United States "to lift sanctions linked to humanitarian goods and civil aviation imposed against Iran."
Republic of Sudan v. Harrison,587 U.S. ___ (2019),was a United States Supreme Court case from the October 2018 term. The Court held that civil service of a lawsuit against the government of Sudan was invalid because the civil complaints and summons had been sent to the Embassy of Sudan in Washington,D.C. rather than to the Sudanese Foreign Minister in Khartoum.
Certain Iranian Assets is the formal name of a case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ). The application was lodged by Iran against the United States on 14 June 2016,on grounds of violation of Treaty of Amity,Economic Relations and Consular Rights,shortly after Bank Markazi v. Peterson was decided by the United States Supreme Court. The Iranian case seeks the unfreezing and return of nearly $2 billion in assets held in the United States. The case focuses specifically on assets seized from the Iranian national bank,Bank Markazi. These funds were seized to compensate victims of a 1983 suicide bombing of a Marine Corps base in Beirut,Lebanon,which has been tied to Iran. The attack killed more than 300 and injured many more,including U.S. military members. Iran has argued in the case that,among other things,the United States has failed to accord Iran and Iranian state-owned companies,and their property,sovereign immunity,and failed to recognize the juridical separateness of Iranian state-owned companies.
Türkiye Halk BankasıA.Ş. v. United States,598 U.S. 264 (2023),was a United States Supreme Court case concerning the exposure of Turkish state-owned bank Halkbank to prosecution by the Department of Justice under the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act of 1976,and more broadly,the limits imposed by the sovereign immunity doctrine on criminal prosecution.
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