What is ‘International Administrative Law’? The Adequacy of this Term in Various Judgments of International Administrative Tribunals

Abstract

This chapter examines the adequacy of using the term ‘international administrative law’ in international administrative tribunal decisions, and finds it wanting. Whilst it is accepted that there is a set of legal rules applied by administrative tribunals established by international organizations to resolve employment-related disputes, it is mis-leading to term this ‘international administrative law’. This chapter argues, both that ‘international administrative law’ has a literal legal meaning more aptly applied to the unique treaty-based legal regimes of international organizations, and that ‘interna-tional administrative law’ obscures uncertainty about the sources of law governing the employment relationships of inter-governmental institutions. This leads to confusion between substantive law and procedural law applied by international administrative tribunals together with a tendency to refer to ‘international administrative law’ whenever the tribunal could not clearly say what law they were applying.