Foreign Claims Settlement Commission
Encyclopedia
The Foreign Claims Settlement Commission of the United States (FCSC) is a quasi-judicial, independent agency within the U.S. Department of Justice which adjudicates claims of U.S. nationals against foreign governments, either under specific jurisdiction conferred by Congress
United States Congress
The United States Congress is the bicameral legislature of the federal government of the United States, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. The Congress meets in the United States Capitol in Washington, D.C....
or pursuant to international claims settlement agreements. Funds for payment of the Commission's awards are derived from congressional appropriations, international claims settlements, or liquidation of foreign assets in the United States by the Departments of Justice and the U.S. treasury
United States Department of the Treasury
The Department of the Treasury is an executive department and the treasury of the United States federal government. It was established by an Act of Congress in 1789 to manage government revenue...
.
The Commission is headed by Chairman Timothy J. Feighery. Messrs. Stephen C. King and Rafael E. Martinez
Rafael E. Martinez
Rafael E. Martinez was the 2003 United States' candidate to serve on the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, the human rights arm of the Organization of American States. Since his candidacy was unsuccessful, as of January 2004 there was no U.S...
serve as a part-time members of the Commission. The Commission also employs a small staff of professional and administrative personnel.
The FCSC's regulations may be found at Part 500 of Title 45, Code of Federal Regulations
Code of Federal Regulations
The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent rules and regulations published in the Federal Register by the executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government of the United States.The CFR is published by the Office of the Federal Register, an agency...
.
History
The FCSC was established in 1954 (Reorganization Plan No. 1 (5 U.S.C. App.)), when it assumed the functions of two predecessor agencies: the War Claims Commission and the International Claims Commission. The FCSC and its predecessor agencies have successfully completed 43 claims programs to resolve claims against various countries including the Federal Republic of Germany, IranIran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
, Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia
Yugoslavia refers to three political entities that existed successively on the western part of the Balkans during most of the 20th century....
, Bulgaria
Bulgaria
Bulgaria , officially the Republic of Bulgaria , is a parliamentary democracy within a unitary constitutional republic in Southeast Europe. The country borders Romania to the north, Serbia and Macedonia to the west, Greece and Turkey to the south, as well as the Black Sea to the east...
, Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
, Hungary
Hungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
, the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia
Czechoslovakia or Czecho-Slovakia was a sovereign state in Central Europe which existed from October 1918, when it declared its independence from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, until 1992...
, Poland
Poland
Poland , officially the Republic of Poland , is a country in Central Europe bordered by Germany to the west; the Czech Republic and Slovakia to the south; Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania to the east; and the Baltic Sea and Kaliningrad Oblast, a Russian exclave, to the north...
, Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, Cuba
Cuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
, China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...
, East Germany, Vietnam
Vietnam
Vietnam – sometimes spelled Viet Nam , officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam – is the easternmost country on the Indochina Peninsula in Southeast Asia. It is bordered by China to the north, Laos to the northwest, Cambodia to the southwest, and the South China Sea –...
, Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
, Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, Panama
Panama
Panama , officially the Republic of Panama , is the southernmost country of Central America. Situated on the isthmus connecting North and South America, it is bordered by Costa Rica to the northwest, Colombia to the southeast, the Caribbean Sea to the north and the Pacific Ocean to the south. The...
, and Albania
Albania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
. In all, more than 660,000 claims have been adjudicated, with awards totaling in the billions of dollars.
Albania Claims Program
Pursuant to the U.S.-AlbaniaAlbania
Albania , officially known as the Republic of Albania , is a country in Southeastern Europe, in the Balkans region. It is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. It has a coast on the Adriatic Sea...
n Claims Settlement Agreement of March 1995, the FCSC retains authority to adjudicate claims of U.S. nationals for expropriation, confiscation and other loss of property suffered at the hands of the Communist regime which seized power in Albania at the end of the Second World War. A fund of $2 million was provided by Albania under the 1995 agreement from which to pay the Commission's awards, and over $1 million remains available in this fund.
Holocaust Claims Program
The United States and Germany signed an agreement on September 19, 1995, providing for reparations for certain U.S.-citizen survivors of the Holocaust, with compensation to be paid in two stages. The first stage provided for compensation for Hugo PrinczHugo Princz
Hugo Princz was a Holocaust survivor who was imprisoned in Auschwitz concentration camp in Oswiecim, Poland. Princz is notable for among other things being an American citizen at the time of his imprisonment in 1940, his denial of reparations by the West German government and their successor, the...
and a small group of other known concentration camp survivors, through a lump-sum payment to the United States of 3 million Deutsche Mark (about $2.1 million). The second stage was to provide for compensation for additional, similarly-situated claimants. Legislation passed in early 1996 authorized the Commission to receive and adjudicate cases of additional claimants, a process which it completed in March 1998. Following further negotiations, the German Government paid to the United States in June 1999 an additional lump sum of 34.5 million Deutsche Mark (about $18 million) in final settlement of any and all claims of United States citizens against Germany for Nazi persecution in concentration camps, whether or not they were adjudicated by the Commission. In the ensuing months, the Department of the Treasury completed the process of distributing the settlement fund to the claimants previously found eligible for awards.
Cuban Claims Programs
The Commission has administered two programs for adjudication of claims against the Government of CubaCuba
The Republic of Cuba is an island nation in the Caribbean. The nation of Cuba consists of the main island of Cuba, the Isla de la Juventud, and several archipelagos. Havana is the largest city in Cuba and the country's capital. Santiago de Cuba is the second largest city...
. In its First Cuban Claims Program, completed on July 6, 1972, the Commission certified 5,911 claims to the U.S. Department of State as valid claims. In August 2006 the Commission completed the administration of a second Cuban claims program, evaluating previously unadjudicated claims of U.S. citizens or corporations against the Government of Cuba for losses of real and personal property taken after May 1, 1967. The first program was conducted under the authority of Title V of the International Claims Settlement Act of 1949, as amended ( et seq.), while the second program was conducted pursuant to the Commission's authority under (a)(1)(C) to evaluate categories of claims referred to it by the Secretary of State. The second program began on August 10, 2005, and the filing deadline was February 13, 2006.
In its Second Cuban Claims Program, the Commission received a total of five claims, and certified two of those claims as valid: the Claim of Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide, Inc., Claim No. CU-2-001, Decision No. CU-2-001, in the total principal amount of $51,128,926.95 (plus 6 percent simple annual interest); and the Claim of Iraida R. Mendez, Claim No. CU-2-002, Decision No. CU-2-004, in the principal amount of $16,000.00 (plus 6 percent simple annual interest). These will be added to the claims already certified in the previous program. Although there are no funds currently available to make payment on any American claims, the purpose of the Commission’s certifications will be to serve as a basis for future negotiation of a claims settlement with the Government of Cuba.
Helms-Burton Act/Claims Against Cuba
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity (LIBERTAD) Act of 1996, Public Law 104-114, known as the "Helms-Burton ActHelms-Burton Act
The Cuban Liberty and Democratic Solidarity Act of 1996 is a United States federal law which strengthens and continues the United States embargo against Cuba...
," includes as Title III a provision authorizing U.S. nationals whose Cuban property was confiscated by the Castro regime to bring federal court actions against foreign entities "trafficking" in those properties. The legislation contemplates that, with limited exceptions, the courts hearing these cases will adopt the valuations determined in awards issued by the Commission in its Cuban Claims Program, which it conducted from 1965 to 1972 under Title V of the International Claims Settlement Act of 1949, as amended (22 U.S.C. 1643 et seq.). In the course of that program the Commission certified 5,911 claims as valid, with an aggregate principal value (i.e., not including interest) of over $1.8 billion.
In cases where plaintiffs were not eligible to file claims in the Commission's Cuban Claims Program, the Helms-Burton Act authorized the United States District Courts, beginning in March 1998, to receive those claims and to appoint the Commission as Special Master to make determinations concerning ownership and valuation of the property at issue in the claims. Since the statute's enactment, however, Presidents Clinton and Bush have continually waived the implementation of the right to file Title III actions, citing the need to seek agreement with U.S. trading partners on policy toward Cuba; it remains suspended today.
Vietnam War Claims
The Commission continues to have authority under the War Claims Act of 1948, as amended, to receive, determine, and provide for the payment of any further claims that may be filed for maltreatment of U.S. servicemen and civilians held as prisoners of war or interned by a hostile force in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam WarVietnam War
The Vietnam War was a Cold War-era military conflict that occurred in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia from 1 November 1955 to the fall of Saigon on 30 April 1975. This war followed the First Indochina War and was fought between North Vietnam, supported by its communist allies, and the government of...
. In addition, the Commission is frequently called upon to provide advice and assistance to the Department of State and Congressional offices on policy issues involving international claims and proposals for legislation to resolve classes of still-outstanding U.S. citizens' claims.
Guam War Claims Review Commission
Because of the institutional knowledge and expertise of the FCSC staff, the Department of the Interior asked for the FCSC's assistance with the GuamGuam
Guam is an organized, unincorporated territory of the United States located in the western Pacific Ocean. It is one of five U.S. territories with an established civilian government. Guam is listed as one of 16 Non-Self-Governing Territories by the Special Committee on Decolonization of the United...
War Claims Review Commission, which was established in September 2003 pursuant to Public Law 107-333, approved December 16, 2002. The purpose of the Review Commission was to evaluate the treatment accorded by the U.S. Navy to claims of residents of Guam for death, physical injury, and property loss and destruction during and after the occupation of Guam by Imperial Japanese Forces during World War II, and to determine whether the compensation provided to the people of Guam was comparable to that provided under other claims statutes covering World War II losses.
The Review Commission, composed of five individuals, designated the FCSC's Chairman as its Chairman, and the FCSC staff members conducted investigative research in support of the Review Commission's work. However, it is important to emphasize that this work was totally independent, and that it was carried out solely for the edification of and at the direction of the members of the Review Commission and was in no way identified with or sponsored by either the FCSC or the Department of Justice.
The Review Commission held hearings on Guam in December 2003 to take testimony of survivors of the Japanese occupation concerning their wartime and post-war experiences, and in February 2004 it held a conference in Washington, DC, to hear opinions and insights of legal experts on a variety of war claims-related issues. These efforts eventually culminated in an 82-page written report, with numerous appendices, which the Review Commission submitted on June 9, 2004, to the Secretary of the Interior, the House Committees on Resources and the Judiciary, and the Senate Committees on Energy and Natural Resources and the Judiciary. As provided by law, the Review Commission then went out of existence on July 10, 2004. It is the FCSC's understanding that the Administration has not taken a position on any of the findings and recommendations contained in the Review Commission's report.