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

Newsletter 5/2024 - Past Events

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9 September 2024, Berlin

As a highlight of the Berlin Dispute Resolution Week and immediately preceding the DIS Autumn Conference, the DIS organized the 7th Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel Lecture at the Marriott Hotel in Berlin.

The Lecture is organized on a bi-annual basis to honour Prof. Dr. Karl-Heinz Böckstiegel, who from 1996 to 2012 was the President of the DIS and has been the DIS Honorary President since then.

The Lecture on the topic:

            Modern Mass Claims, Up to Ukraine: Lessons for International Arbitration

was given by Lucy Reed, a leading specialist in both international modern mass claims and international commercial and investment arbitration and the current President of the Singapore International Arbitration Centre. More than 150 practitioners and academics in the field of international arbitration had registered for the lecture.

In her Lecture, Lucy Reed gave an overview over different modern mass claims commissions and projects, namely the

  • Iran-United States Claims Tribunal,
  • United Nations Compensation Commission,
  • Commission for Real Property Claims of Displaced Persons and Refugees (the Dayton Accords),
  • Claims Resolution Tribunal for Dormant Swiss Bank Accounts,
  • Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission,
  • United Nations Register of Damages Caused by the Construction of the Wall in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and the
  • Register for Damage Caused by the Aggression of the Russian Federation Against Ukraine. 

She pointed out that all are based 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.

She explained that the lessons international arbitration can learn from modern international mass claims include the importance of clear procedural rules, disciplined use of standards and burdens of proof, the need to balance speed and efficiency with fairness and accuracy, alertness to possibly fraudulent claims, and the importance of reliable funding.

The DIS is deeply grateful to Lucy Reed for this very insightful and inspiring Lecture!

Torsten Lörcher

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