Introductory Note

In 2019, the international administrative tribunals saw a number of significant developments in their handling of complex and perennial issues. Reference is made in this chapter, in particular, to the Nasir and the L. (No. 6) cases, where, respectively, the UN Dispute Tribunal and the Administrative Tribunal of the International Labour Organization delivered two noteworthy judgments on procedural and substantive issues of primary importance such as the doctrine of acquired (or vested) rights and the doctrine of res judicata. In the FC case, a decision was handed down by the World Bank Administrative Tribunal (WABT), which addressed issues involving the standards and burden of proof indispensable for ascertaining the existence of sexual harassment at the workplace. Here the WABT took a novel and more “guarantistic” approach for the applicant’s role and interests when it stated that “[i]n cases of sexual harassment where direct evidence is difficult to obtain, circumstantial evidence such as accounts to third parties at the time of the events in question becomes especially important.”