International Administrative Tribunals

Abstract

International administrative tribunals (IATs), like other international tribunals, generally are clearly tribunals of limited jurisdiction and not of general jurisdiction, as was recognized by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) specifically in relation to the International Labour Organization Administrative Tribunal (ILOAT). The issue of the legality of establishment of IATs, which may be raised as a jurisdictional issue, provokes several questions. The first question relates to principles of interpretation of the constitutional instruments of international organizations from which the power to establish IATs must be derived. The jurisdictional competence ratione temporis must be distinguished from inadmissibility or irreceivability ratione temporis. Inadmissibility results from conditions required to be fulfilled by those provisions, as appropriately interpreted, sometimes in the light of general principles. The statute of a tribunal provides an exception to the requirement that internal remedies must be exhausted in the case of exceptional circumstances.Keywords: inadmissibility; international administrative tribunals (IATs); International Court of Justice (ICJ); international labour organization administrative tribunal (ILOAT); irreceivability; jurisdictional competence