446 Between Yesterday and Tomorrow (1914– )General Agreement on Tariff s and Trade (GATT), although it was not fre-
quently used. Th at changed when the World Trade Or ga ni za tion (WTO) was
created in 1995. One of the centerpieces of the WTO was a dispute- settlement
mechanism, which immediately began to produce a large volume of case law
on matters relating to international trade. For investment matters, there was
a body called the International Center for the Settlement of Investment Dis-
putes, which was established in association with the World Bank in 1966.
Somewhat like the P.C.A., it was not a standing court, but rather a mecha-
nism for the creation of arbitration panels on an ad hoc basis to resolve dis-
putes between states and private investors. In the late 1990s, a signifi cant
increase in the center’s activity began, so that, by 2011, over three hundred
arbitrations had been arranged. In about half of these, awards were made in
favor of private- party claimants against host countries.
One of the most signifi cant developments in the area of international eco-
nomic law was, ironically, an off shoot of the Tehran Hostages crisis of 1979–
- It was noted that the crisis was resolved, in 1981, by agreement between
Iran and the United States. In addition to providing for the release of the
hostages, that agreement established a mixed- claims commission to adjudi-
cate claims by the two countries against one another— including claims by
private parties. A large number of these were by American investors seeking
compensation for nationalizations, breaches of contract, and similar mea-
sures. As a result, the Iran– United States Claims Tribunal produced a sig-
nifi cant body of case law in that area.
Another specialized area was the law of the sea. Among the innovations
of the 1982 Law of the Sea Convention was the establishment of an Interna-
tional Tribunal for the Law of the Sea, located in Hamburg. Comprising
twenty- one judges, it began functioning in 1996. By 2011, nearly twenty cases
had been submitted to it, one for an advisory opinion and the others involv-
ing disputes between states. About half of these related to the convention’s
requirement of prompt release of foreign vessels and crews taken into
custody.
Human-rights law was another specialized area with a burgeoning volume
of case law. It has been observed that, in 1976, the International Covenant on
Civil and Po liti cal Rights fi nally entered into force— along with its Optional
Protocol, which provided for claims by individuals against states to be
brought before the Human Rights Committee. Th e committee was not,