Divide, Conquer, and Pay: Civil Compensation for Wartime Damages

Abstract

The United Nations Compensation Commission (UNCC) was created by the United Nations (U.N.) in order to compensate monetarily those injured personally and financially by Iraq's illegal actions during the Persian Gulf War (Gulf War). This Note compares the situation in Iraq to that in the former Yugoslavia and considers why such a compensation system was instated in Iraq but not in the Balkans. The author concludes that the UNCC will serve as precedent for the imposition of civil liability for wartime damages and delineates those circumstances under which such a civil compensation system could exist.