Nationalization

The present article deals with the issues of nationalization and expropriation in the light of Iran-United States Claims Tribunal Awards by looking at their legality and the limits on the rights of states to nationalise and expropriate, while discussing some case law. I will argue that the state’s right to nationalize foreign property is an attribute of its sovereignty and derives from territorial supremacy of the state. It is also proposed to examine the questions of State responsibility for the injurious consequences of certain wrongful acts or omissions during the Revolution of 1979. The question is whether the events of the revolution and the appointment of temporary managers to administer the foreign companies’ affairs could be interpreted as constituting an expropriation and whether this measure is in full accord with international jurisprudence. The Tribunal’s decisions make it clear that regardless of whether the state has obtained any value of property or not, responsibility exists whenever acts attributable to a state have deprived a foreigner of his property rights.

The present article will discuss the issue of compensation in cases of expropriation and nationalization in the light of the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. It is a well recognized rule in international law that the property of alien cannot be taken without appropriate compensation. But, the standard of compensation for expropriated private property has been the subject of controversy between Western and developing countries since the end of World War II. In alters woads, the standard to be applied in determining compensation remained a controversial issue at a theoretical level. The main argument has been whether the traditional standard of full compensation is a general rule of law applicable in all cases. In this article, awards of the Iran-US Claims Tribunal have been wseof in an attempt to show that the prevailed rules defy any conclusion that full compensation must be paid in all cases when foreign property is taken by the State.