David D. Caron ’83, C. William Maxeiner Distinguished Professor of Law, hosted a conference at Berkeley on Friday, January 13, titled The Algiers Accords and the Iran-United State Claims Tribunal: 25 Years On. Attendees included Mark Feldman, a principal State Department negotiator of the Accords 25 years ago and Clifton Johnson, the present State Department agent before the Iran-United States Claims Tribunal. “Yes, the tribunal still continues its work,” reports Professor Caron. From 1981 to the mid 1990s, the tribunal’s docket overwhelmingly involved some 4,000 thousand of claims of U.S. nationals against Iran. Less well known is that a different portion of the tribunal’s docket involves intergovernmental claims between Iran and the United States and the largest of those claims is only now being addressed. These remaining claims are primarily brought by Iran against the United States over military purchases during the Shah’s regime in Iran, and seek in the aggregate more than was at issue in the earlier period. Indeed, the tribunal is in a different part of its institutional life and considering difficult matters at a time of particular strain in United States-Iranian relations.
Boalt Hall has had a long involvement with the accords and tribunal. Professor Stefan A. Riesenfeld ’37 was a part of the negotiating team of the Algiers Accords in his role as counselor on public international law at the State Department. Jamison (Selby) Borek ’77 was the first deputy U.S. agent before the tribunal, while Hank Lerner ’77, then with State Department and presently with Allen Matkins in San Francisco, was a part of the U.S. legal team. More recently, David Kaye ’95, presently on leave from the State Department at Whittier Law School, served as deputy U.S. agent before the Tribunal in The Hague from 2000 to 2005.
There has also been a long tradition of Boalt graduates serving as law clerks to Judges of the Tribunal in The Hague. Professor Caron served as a legal assistant at Tribunal from 1983 to 1985 for Judges Richard M. Mosk and Charles N. Brower. Since then, other Boalt legal assistants include:
- Charles L.O. Buderi ’83, former legal assistant to Judge George H. Aldrich (1988-1990) and presently with Curtis Mallet-Prevost in its London office
- Douglas Reichert ’85, formerly legal assistant to Judge George H. Aldrich (1986-987) and presently in practice in Geneva
- James Castello ’86, formerly legal assistant with Judge Howard M. Holtzmann (1988-1990) and presently with Freshfields in its Vienna office
- Carroll S. Dorgan ’88, formerly legal assistant with Judge George H. Aldrich (1989-1991) and presently with Jones Day Reavis & Pogue in its Paris office
- Professor Christopher S. Gibson ’88, formerly legal assistant to Judge Richard C. Allison and Charles N. Brower (1989 to 1990), and presently with Suffolk Law School
- Jeffrey L. Bleich ’89, formerly legal assistant to Judge Howard M. Holtzmann (1991-1992) and presently with Munger Tolles & Olson in its San Francisco office
- Raoul Stewardson ’92 (LL.M.), formerly legal assistant to Judge Krzysztof Skubiszewski (1995-1997) and presently with UPS Europe
- Professor Anuj C. Desai ’94, former legal assistant to Judge Richard C. Allison and Richard M. Mosk (1996-1998) and presently with the University of Wisconsin Law School
- Professor Nancy Combs ’94, formerly legal assistant to Judge George H. Aldrich (1996-2005) and presently with William and Mary Law School
- Professor Tom Ginsburg ’97, ’99 (Ph.D.) , formerly legal assistant to Judge Richard M . Mosk (1998-2000) and presently professor of law and political science with the University of Illinois College of Law
- Lee M. Caplan ’00, formerly legal assistant to Judge Richard M. Mosk and Gabrielle Kirk McDonald (2001-2002) and presently with the Legal Advisor’s Office of the U.S. Department of State
- Jarrod Wong ’03, formerly legal assistant to Judge Charles N. Brower (2003-2004) and in practice in San Francisco
The conference was co-sponsored by the Institute of Transnational Arbitration in Dallas and was, in addition to the ITA, supported by the university’s Institute of International Studies, the Northern California International Arbitration Club and Boalt Hall.