7th Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel Lecture: Modern Mass Claims, Up To Ukraine

Modern mass claims commissions and projects have all taken different forms: for example the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, the United Nations Compensation Commission or, most recently, the Register for Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine. All are based, however, on certain foundations: consent (or loss by one side in an armed conflict), jurisdiction and eligibility requirements, efficient and fair systems for claims collection and neutral claims evaluation, and a source of funding for administration and compensation.

In addition to being interesting in their own right as a form of international dispute resolution, there are lessons to be learned from such mass claims processes for the practice of international arbitration.  The lessons include the importance of clear procedural rules, disciplined use of standards and burdens of proof, the challenge of balancing speed and efficiency with fairness and accuracy, alertness to possibly fraudulent claims, and the importance of reliable funding.

Speaker - Lucy Reed, now an independent arbitrator, has sat in over 75 commercial and investor-State arbitrations. Lucy currently is President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre Court, a member of the (Council of Europe) Board of the Register for Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine, and Honorary (Immediate Past) President of ICCA. She formerly served as a Vice President of the ICC Court, Chair of the Institute for Transnational Arbitration, and President of the American Society of International Law.