Quasi-Judicial Bodies as Procedural Innovations: The World Bank Access to Information Appeals Procedure

Abstract

After years of criticism toward its mode of operation,1 the World Bank is now engaged in a major and drastic institutional reform aimed at enhancing its transparency and accountability through access to information. In July 2010, the World Bank Access to Information Policy (the AI Policy) was launched as one initiative to provide better access to information for the public.2 A “landmark disclosure policy”3 for the World Bank, a “welcome step”,4 or a “clear sign of the development of procedural norms that apply to global institutions”5 for others, the AI Policy is nonetheless a major reform of the Bank's disclosure policy as it represents a “paradigm shift in the Bank's approach to disclosure”.6 It has indeed redefined the way the I.