According to General Principle A and Paragraph 9 of the 1981 Algiers Declarations, the United States has been committed to ensuring the movement and free transfer of all Iranian assets subject to the US jurisdiction and arranging for the transfer of all Iranian properties. In Case A15, the Iran-US Claims Tribunal, in reply to Iran’s plea for transfer of its properties, was faced with the question of whether the phrase ‘all Iranian properties’ under Paragraph 9 of the General Declarations includes items purchased by Iran from a seller in the US, i.e., items fully paid for by Iran, but not yet so transferred. In its Partial Award No. 604 — citing Partial Award No. 529, which refers to Iranian properties as tangible properties exclusively possessed by Iran—the Tribunal believed that for determining the transfer of the title of properties sold to Iran, there is a need to apply domestic laws governing the transfer of title, which must be verified according to general principles of private international law. By criticizing the position of the majority in Partial Award No. 604, this paper demonstrates that Partial Award No. 529 was not trying to interpret the term ‘Iranian properties’ and this Award cannot have res judicata effect. Rather, instead of applying lex rei sitae through general principles of private international law, the shared understanding of the Parties of the particular meaning of the term ‘Iranian properties’ should be evinced resorting to Article 31 Paragraph 4 of Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties.

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