The Development and Effectiveness of International Administrative Law ─ On the Occasion of the Thirtieth Anniversary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal

Building upon a March 2010 conference on current issues in international administrative law jointly co-hosted by the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and the American Society of International Law on the occasion of the former's 30th anniversary, editor Elias (Executive Secretary, World Bank Administrative Tribunal) supplements papers from the conference with additional contributions on similar topics of interest. Following introductory materials, the volume's 22 chapters are organized into four sections. The first considers the development of international administrative law as a field, and includes explorations of administrative tribunals of international organizations as they relate to the concept of world constitutionalism and from the perspective of emerging global administrative law, as well as the role of administrative tribunals in the independence of the international civil service. The next set of papers explores the development of international administrative law by administrative tribunals and contains discussions of issues of monetary problems, discovery, standard of proof in investigations of staff misconduct, and the scope of World Bank Administrative Tribunal remedies. Institutional frameworks are examined next, with reference to the United Nations, the European Union Civil Service, and the possible role of arbitration in administrative tribunals. Issues of effectiveness and legitimacy are addressed by the final set of papers, including desirable standards of administrative tribunal design from the perspective of domestic courts, the evolution of judicial and quasi-judicial independence of administrative tribunals of the World Bank, the effectiveness of international administrative law as a body of law and in comparison to some national legal systems, International Court of Justice review of decisions by international administrative tribunals, the role of due process in international adjudication mechanisms, and conflicts of interest. Martinus Nijhoff is an imprint of Brill. Annotation c2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Olufemi Elias, MA (Oxon), LL.M (Cantab) Ph.D. (London) is currently Executive Secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and a Visiting Professor of International Law at Queen Mary, University of London. He has written books and articles on various aspects of international law.