International Claims Commissions fly under our journalistic radar and don’t get scrutiny. Maybe because they take so long.

But today we decided to find out what they are and how they work!

Chiara Giorgetti is a professor of law, at Richmond Law School. And senior fellow, at Columbia Law School. She’s also the vice chair of the Register for Damages for Ukraine (see our pod with the Executive Director). And she has worked at the Eritrea-Ethiopia Claims Commission and the United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) for the Iraq-Kuwait war.

She says International Claims Commissions are ad hoc flexible instruments, often created as part of a peace deal. They are binding dispute-resolution mechanisms created under international law.

Looking back, the UNCC awarded over $50 billion worth of claims, and it heard more than 1.5 million claims claimants. So these Claims Commissions can be very large and can have a very significant jurisdiction.

To understand why they exist she suggests you need to think about violation of international law, and the articles of state responsibility, which say that if a state violates international law, there are legal consequences. And some of those legal consequences are the provision of reparations, which includes compensation.

Why might this become more relevant beyond Ukraine? Well – what about climate change? Could there be a Claims Commission there, where the responsibility of a state is engaged? And what about Palestine? Here’s Mark Lattimer who has already kicked off the discussion.