IMF Administrative Tribunal - Members of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal

Source details

Canonical URL

IMF Administrative Tribunal - Members of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal

Other formats

• Markdown version
• Structured JSON version
• Bundle manifest

Composition and statutory rules

• The International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal (IMFAT) adjudicates employment disputes between staff members and the IMF.
• The Tribunal is composed of five Judges, including the President.
• By Statute, Judges must possess the qualifications required for appointment to high judicial office or be jurisconsults of recognized competence.
• Appointment procedures and terms:
  • The Managing Director appoints the Judges following appropriate consultation, including with the Staff Association.
  • Appointment of the President is subject to approval by the Executive Board.
  • Judges serve four-year terms, limited to two reappointments.
  • Decisions in a case are taken by a three-Judge panel composed of the President and two others designated by the President.
  • Judges are completely independent in the exercise of their duties. They may not have any prior or present employment relationship with the Fund and are not eligible for staff employment following their service with the Tribunal.
  • The Tribunal is assisted by the Registrar and other personnel who serve under the authority of the President of the Tribunal. (Statute, Articles VII, VIII, and IX.)

Current membership and timing

• "Last Updated: June 24, 2025"
• Photographic composition referenced: "IMF Administrative Tribunal as of November 2024"
• Current composition: five Judges plus a Registrar.

Biographical summaries of the Judges (key roles, dates, and affiliations)

• Nassib G. Ziadé (President)
  • Nationalities: Lebanon and Chile.
  • Served as a Judge since June 2019 and as President since January 2022.
  • Current and past roles: President of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal; Member of the World Bank Group Sanctions Board; Member of the Sanctions Panel of the Global Fund; former Chief Executive Officer of the Bahrain Chamber for Dispute Resolution (BCDR); former Director of DIAC; former Deputy Secretary-General (and Acting Secretary-General) of ICSID; former Executive Secretary of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal.
  • Arbitration and tribunal experience: chair or co-arbitrator in proceedings under ICC, LCIA, ICSID, PCA, CRCICA, DIAC, ADCCAC, SIAC, HKIAC, and ad hoc UNCITRAL proceedings.
  • Academic and editorial roles: Visiting Professor at the University of Miami School of Law and Saint-Joseph University; taught at University of Paris I (Panthéon-Sorbonne), Universities of Chile and Heidelberg, Paris International Academy for Arbitration Law, and Hague Academy of International Law; Associate Member of the Institut de droit international; Founder and General Editor of the BCDR International Arbitration Review; former Editor-in-Chief of the ICSID Review—Foreign Investment Law Journal.
  • Memberships and honors: Member of editorial advisory committees of several law journals; former Counsellor and Member of the Executive Committee of the American Society of International Law; former Member of the Advisory Committee of the Lauterpacht Centre for International Law at the University of Cambridge.

• Deborah Thomas-Felix (Judge)
  • Nationality: Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
  • Served as a Judge since 2020.
  • Current role: President of the Industrial Court of Trinidad and Tobago.
  • International roles: Member of the Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations (appointed by the Governing Body of the International Labour Organisation in 2015).
  • Prior tribunal service: Judge of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal (UNAT) from 2014 - 2019, serving as President and Second Vice-President of UNAT.
  • Other judicial roles: former Chairman of the Trinidad and Tobago Securities Exchange Commission; former President of the Family Court of St. Vincent and the Grenadines; Magistrate, Senior Magistrate and Deputy Chief Magistrate of the Judiciary of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago.
  • Publications and teaching: author of Labour Law in the Commonwealth Caribbean: The Practice of Good Industrial Relations in the 21st Century and Labour Law and Good Industrial Relations: Progressive Discipline and Maternity Protection in the Workplace.
  • Honors: among seventy distinguished alumni honored for outstanding leadership in the Caribbean by the University of the West Indies.
  • Certifications: certified in international arbitration in oil and gas cases.

• Andrew K.C. Nyirenda SC (Judge)
  • Nationality: Malawi.
  • Served as a Judge since 2022.
  • Career in public service beginning in 1980: joined the Ministry of Justice as a State Advocate; rose to Chief State Advocate, Director of Public Prosecutions for Malawi.
  • Judicial appointments: Judge of the High Court of Malawi in 1994; rose to the Malawi Supreme Court of Appeal in 2008; appointed Judge President of the Court in 2012; elevated to Chief Justice of the Republic of Malawi in 2015.
  • Regional and tribunal roles: Chairperson of the Judicial Service Commission; President of the Administrative Tribunal of the African Union from 2010 to 2020 (supervised reactivation after a 15-year inactivity).
  • Regional leadership: Chairperson of the Southern African Chief Justices’ Forum (SACJF) from October 2018 to September 2021; presided over promulgation and adoption of the Lilongwe Principles and Guidelines on the Selection and Appointment of Judicial Officers (“Lilongwe Principles”).
  • Publications: author of A Comparative Analysis of the Human Rights Chapter Under the Malawi Constitution in an International Perspective; Editor-in-Chief of the Malawi Law Reports.

• Maria Vicien Milburn (Judge)
  • Nationalities: Argentina and Spain.
  • Served as a Judge since 2022.
  • Current roles: judge and arbitrator in international disputes; Member of the World Bank Sanctions Board since 2019 and Chair since 2021.
  • Appointments to other administrative tribunals: Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) (2018); Judge of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) (2020).
  • Arbitration and WTO roles: arbitrator under ICC, ICSID, and PCA; designated on the list of Panelists of the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization (WTO) in 2017.
  • UN and legal roles: observer to UNCITRAL Working Groups II and III on international arbitration; member of the ICC Arbitration Commission; advisor to the Board of the Arbitration Court of Madrid.
  • UN career: more than thirty-five years as an international lawyer in the United Nations System; General Counsel of UNESCO (2009-2014); Director and Deputy Director of the General Legal Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs (1999-2009); Executive Secretary of the UN Administrative Tribunal (1985-1999).
  • Education and honors: graduate of the University of Buenos Aires Law School and Columbia University; admitted to practice law in New York and Buenos Aires; awarded the 2013 Mayre Rasmussen Award by the American Bar Association.

• Kieran Bradley (Judge)
  • Nationalities: Ireland and the United Kingdom.
  • Served as a Judge since 2024.
  • Current roles: judge and current Vice President of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank; member of staff Tribunals of the European Stability Mechanism, the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasts and the Square Kilometer Array Observatory.
  • Other roles: Chairperson of several staff appeals and disciplinary boards of international organizations and European Union bodies.
  • Prior EU and academic roles: judge of the European Union Civil Service Tribunal; judicial advisor and Special Advisor at the European Court of Justice; Director in the European Parliament’s Legal Service; visiting professor at the Catholic University of Portugal and the Autonomous University of Barcelona; Adjunct Professor at Trinity College Dublin; Fellow of the Robert Schuman Institute in Luxembourg; first Distinguished Lecturer in European Union Law at Harvard Law School; awarded a PhD by special regulation by the University of Cambridge in 2016.
  • Contributions: member of the Advisory Council of the Irish Centre for European Law; Advisory Board of the Common Market Law Review; CJEU Correspondent and contributor to Law and Practice of International Courts and Tribunals.
  • Publications: published extensively in the field of European Law.

Registrar

• Paul Jean Le Cannu (Registrar)
  • Nationality: France.
  • Registrar of the Administrative Tribunal since June 2024.
  • Prior roles: Senior Counsel and Team Leader at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID, World Bank Group); supervised a daily caseload of around sixty pending arbitrations conducted in English, French and Spanish under the ICSID Arbitration Rules and the Arbitration Rules of the UN Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL); served as Secretary of Tribunals and Annulment Committees.
  • Earlier positions: legal counsel at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague; associate at Shearman & Sterling LLP in Paris.
  • Education and admission: degrees from King’s College London (LL.B.), the University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Maîtrise and DEA), the Institut d'Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po, DiplômeSection Service Public), and the Universitat de València, Spain (Diploma práctico sobre arbitraje interno e internacional); admitted to the Paris Bar in 2005.
  • Publications and activities: published extensively and a frequent speaker on international dispute settlement.

Former Presidents, Judges, and Registrars (tenures)

• Former Presidents:
  • Catherine M. O'Regan, President 2011 - 2021, Judge 2010 – 2011.
  • Stephen M. Schwebel, 1994 – 2010.
• Former Judges (tenures listed where provided):
  • Edith Brown Weiss 2012 – 2023.
  • Andrés Rigo Sureda, 2010 – 2021.
  • Jan Paulsson, 2011 – 2019.
  • Francisco Orrego Vicuña, 2012 – 2018.
  • Nisuke Ando, 1994 – 2011.
  • Michel Gentot, 1994 – 2011.
  • Georges Abi-Saab, 1994 – 2009.
  • Agustín Gordillo, 1994 – 2009.
• Former Registrars:
  • Philine R. Lachman, 1994 – 1999.
  • Celia Goldman, 1999 - 2024.

Content in this bundle

• Code of Judicial Conduct, IMF Administrative Tribunal, Last amended: December 13, 2021
  • Code of Judicial Conduct, IMF Administrative Tribunal, Last amended: December 13, 2021 (Markdown version)
  • Code of Judicial Conduct, IMF Administrative Tribunal, Last amended: December 13, 2021 (PDF)
• IMF Administrative Tribunal: Cumulative Index to IMFAT Judgments and Orders 1994-2006
  • IMF Administrative Tribunal: Cumulative Index to IMFAT Judgments and Orders 1994-2006 (Markdown version)
  • IMF Administrative Tribunal: Cumulative Index to IMFAT Judgments and Orders 1994-2006 (PDF)
• Revised Decision on the protection of privacy and method of publication, June 08, 2006
  • Revised Decision on the protection of privacy and method of publication, June 08, 2006 (Markdown version)
  • Revised Decision on the protection of privacy and method of publication, June 08, 2006 (PDF)

References

• IMF Administrative Tribunal Home Page
• New Search Tool for Tribunal Judgments and Orders
• Statute of the Administrative Tribunal
• Commentary on the Statute
• Resolutions of the Board of Governors
• Rules of Procedure
• Pending Cases
• Judgments
• Orders
• Volumes of IMFAT Reports
• Tribunal’s Operations During Pandemic
• IMFAT 30th Anniversary Conference
• See also: IMF Staff Ethics, Financial Disclosure, and Resolution of Staff Disputes