Purpose

To commemorate the 20th anniversary of the ADB Administrative Tribunal, this conference will examine how international organizations can structure their dispute resolution procedures to strengthen the independence of administrative tribunals. It will also consider traditional Asian dispute resolution procedures and how they have been impacted by the introduction of "western" judicial procedures.

Objectives

The conference will provide participants:

• Documentation of the history and state of the law of ADBAT over the past 20 years
• A comprehensive review of the various structures and innovations used by international organizations in their internal administrative review and peer review processes before recourse to Tribunals
• A nuanced understanding of how various preceding dispute resolution procedures can impact on Tribunal independence
• A better understanding of the benefits of the parties resolving their disputes on their own in preference to relying on outside judges to determine their futures
• An assessment of how Tribunal independence may be strengthened or weakened by the structures and practices utilized by the disputants on the steps below

Expected outputs

• Documentation of the history and state of the law of ADBAT over the past 20 years.
• Papers on dispute resolution in Asian societies prior to and since the advent of western adversarial law structures.
• Ideas and prescriptions for reviewing and perhaps adapting the structures of international organizations to assure more rapid and more frequent resolution of disputes in house, while developing structures and procedures which will enhance the independence of their various Administrative Tribunals.

Target participants

• Former Presidents and Judges of the ADBAT Presidents and judges of other administrative tribunals
• Representatives of staff associations and participants in appeals committees at ADB and other organizations
• Members of management, Staff Associations and Appeals Committees of ADB and other organizations
• Former and present Executive Secretaries and Registrars of  ADBAT and other Administrative Tribunals

Resource speakers

• Dale Bagshaw on Asian cultural dispute resolution,
• John Kennedy on internal structures of administrative review
• Chris de Cooker on appeals, committees and other steps below
• Ahmed el Kosheri on Tribunals and how their independence is affected by the earlier procedures

ADB Administrative Tribunal

Arnold M. Zack
President

Yuji Iwasawa
Vice-President

Khaja Muhammad Ahmad Samdani
Judge

Lakshmi Swaminathan
Judge

Claude Wantiez
Judge

Tribunal secretariat

Cesar L. Villanueva
Executive Secretary

Christine Griffiths
Assistant to the Tribunal