The Legal Nature of Military Sales Contracts between Iran and the United States

After coup d'etat of 1953 in Iran, Iran's relations with the United States entered a new phase and continued until the Shah's departure from Iran on 9th Jan. 1979, and perhaps shortly thereafter that. Meanwhile, many contracts were signed to commerce  military items between the two countries. But with the end of friendly relations between the two countries and the subsequent signature of Algiers Accords and the establishment of Iran-United States Claims Tribunal, allegations of breach of these contracts formed the basis for a case filed by Iran in the tribunal which is still pending. Given the lack of governing law in these contracts, it is important to determine their governing law which is subject to determination of their legal nature. Thus, this paper seeks to determine legal nature of arms and military equipment contracts between the United States and Iran by conducting analytical research. Given the five reasons as a strong sign of the existence of treaty elements in these contract, it can be concluded that the contracts in question are in fact treaty under the in the sense of Vienna Convention on the Law of treaties.