Towards a universal law governing the international civil service: a coalescence of international administrative law amid a proliferation of tribunals

Abstract

The present work concerns International Administrative Tribunals (IATs), the dispute-resolution bodies between staff members and the administration of international organizations. Beginning with the creation of the League of Nations Administrative Tribunal in 1927, which continued as the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization upon the dissolution of the League, the number of IATs has now grown to almost thirty. As these tribunals have proliferated, the question has arisen whether the law governing the international civil service has become fragmented or have IATs developed a common jurisprudence of international administrative law. The present dissertation aims to answer this question through a thorough review of the decisions of all currently operating IATs. On the basis of this analysis, the thesis concludes that the proliferation of IATs has not led to significant problems of fragmentation. Rather, the various IATs ¾ through the increasing citation to a common set of general principles, the rapidly expanding practice of cross-fertilization among themselves and the regular citation to a common set of international human rights instruments ¾ are developing a common jurisprudence of international administrative law. The thesis then considers possible ways forward for international administrative law, drawing on the experience of public international law when it lived through the growing pains of fragmentation and proliferation.