SPECIAL APPEALS TRIBUNAL MAIN PAGE

The Special Appeals Tribunal functions in case-specific chambers constituted by three judges designated from the Panel of Independent Reviewers established and maintained under AIIB’s Staff Rule 8.01. Judges are drawn exclusively from Panel members who have not served as Independent Reviewer in any Administrative Review under Staff Rule 8.01.

The Tribunal is supported by a Secretariat, which is headed by an Executive Secretary who reports directly to the judges. The biographies of current members of the Panel of Independent Reviewers and the Executive Secretary of the Tribunal are as follows.

Catherine Meier

(United States/Italy)

Catherine Meier currently serves as a judge of the Asian Development Bank Administrative Tribunal and Alternate Chair of the Appeals Board and Disciplinary Committee of the World Customs Organization. She recently held the position of Inspector General ad interim and Deputy Inspector General at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva, Switzerland. Prior to 2017, she served as Chief of the Administrative Law Branch and Officer-in-Charge for Staff Relations at the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. From 2007 to 2009, she was General Counsel, Vectrix Corporation, and Managing Director, Vectrix Europa Srl. Meier holds a JD from Georgetown University Law School, United States.

Celia Goldman

(United States)

Celia Goldman has served as Registrar (2000 onwards) and Senior Legal Advisor (2008 onwards) of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal. Since 2014, she has been a judge of the European Stability Mechanism Administrative Tribunal. Goldman has contributed to numerous symposia on the law of international civil service. She is a member of the Scientific Advisory Board, Max Planck Encyclopedia of International Procedural Law; and a member of the Advisory Board, Oxford International Organizations. She is former co-chair of the American Society of International Law’s Interest Group on International Courts and Tribunals. Goldman holds a JD from Yale Law School, United States, and a BA from the University of Pennsylvania, United States.

Chris de Cooker

(The Netherlands)

Chris de Cooker currently serves as President of the Asian Development Bank Administrative Tribunal, President of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Administrative Tribunal, judge at the Global Alliance for Vaccines and Immunisation Appeals Tribunal, judge at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development Administrative Tribunal, judge and chairperson at the International Centre for Migration Policy Development Administrative Tribunal, President of the Independent Employment Tribunal of the Square Kilometre Array Observatory, and mediator at the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor Organization. He has more than 40 years of experience in international administrative law, including as a lecturer at Leiden University, Netherlands, and as Head of Staff Regulations and Central Support Division at the European Space Agency. He has also advised several international organizations, particularly on their internal dispute resolution systems. de Cooker holds an LLM from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, and an LLM from Columbia University, United States.

Deborah Thomas-Felix

(Trinidad and Tobago)

Deborah Thomas-Felix has been a judge at the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal since 2020 and a member of the Committee on Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations of the International Labor Organization. She is also former judge and president of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal. She serves as the High Commissioner of Trinidad and Tobago to Jamaica; Ambassador to the Dominican Republic and Haiti; and Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago to the International Seabed Authority. Thomas-Felix holds an LLB from the University of the West Indies; a Certificate of Legal Education from Hugh Wooding Law School, Trinidad and Tobago; an LLM in International Legal Studies from the American University’s Washington College of Law; and an Executive Master of Business Administration from the Arthur Lok Jack Graduate School of Business, Trinidad and Tobago.

Dimitrios Raikos

(Greece)

Dimitrios Raikos is the current Judge President of Mission Appeals Tribunal of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation, adjudicating employment-related disputes, and an ad litem judge of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency. He served as a judge at the United Nations Appeals Tribunal from 2016 to 2023 and was Vice President of the tribunal in 2018 and President in 2019. He also served as Chair of the Independent Public Procurement Authority of Greece from 2013 to 2016. He was a member of the judiciary in Greece from 1985 to 2026 (President of the Administrative Court of Appeal of Athens) and Chair of the disciplinary committee for the heads of self-governing regions (governors), mayors, and city councillors in Greece. He is a full professor of administrative law at the Democritus University of Thrace, Greece; professor at the Greek National School of Judges; and an arbitrator in administrative law disputes. He has more than 24 years of professional experience in multicultural and international work environments, including as a judge; member of various transnational committees; vice chair of the Association of European Administrative Judges; member of the Scientific Board of the Institute for Justice and Growth of the European Public Law Organization; and organizer and chair of high-level seminars for judges of international administrative tribunals. He has authored books and scholarly publications on administrative law, public procurement, and administration of justice. [AG1.1] Raikos holds a doctorate degree in law.

Louise Otis

(Canada)

Louise Otis is currently President of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development Administrative Tribunal, President of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization Administrative Tribunal, deputy judge of the European Organization for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites Administrative Tribunal, and a member of the Internal Justice Council of the United Nations. From 2010 to 2022, she served as President of the Appeals Tribunal of the International Organization of the Francophonie. Otis has participated in international governance and justice reform missions with the United Nations, International Monetary Fund, World Bank, International Finance Corporation, and the Global Fund to Fight HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. Otis is a retired Justice of the Quebec Court of Appeal, where she spearheaded the introduction of judicial mediation and participated in over 3,000 judgments in civil, commercial, and criminal law.

Maria Vicien-Milburn

(Argentina/Spain)

Maria Vicien-Milburn has been a judge of the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal since 2022 and currently serves as a judge and arbitrator in disputes of an international character. She has been a member of the World Bank Sanctions Board since 2019 and was appointed its Chair in 2021. She was also appointed a judge of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development Administrative Tribunal in 2018 and a judge of the Inter-American Development Bank Administrative Tribunal in 2020. She was designated on the list of panelists of the Dispute Settlement Body of the World Trade Organization in 2017. She has served for more than 35 years as an international lawyer in the United Nations system, holding senior roles such as General Counsel of UNESCO (2009-2014) and Director and Deputy Director of the General Legal Division of the UN Office of Legal Affairs (1999-2009). She also served as Executive Secretary of the UN Administrative Tribunal (1985-1999). Vicien-Milburn is a graduate of the University of Buenos Aires Law School, Argentina, and Columbia University, United States.

Martha Halfeld Furtado de Mendonça Schmidt

(Brazil)

Martha Halfeld Furtado de Mendonça Schmidt is currently a judge at the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and the Inter-American Development Bank Administrative Tribunal as well as the Chair of the Joint Appeals Board of the International Seabed Authority. Previously, she was a judge and President of the United Nations Appeals Tribunal. She has been a labor judge in Minas Gerais, Brazil, since 1994. She has taught and published on the subjects of labor law and international law. Halfeld holds a PhD in private law, a DEA (Diplôme d'Études Approfondies) in social law, and a DSU (Diplôme Supérieur de l´Université en Droit du Travail et de la Sécurité Sociale) from the Université Paris II (Panthéon-Assas), France.

Seward Montgomery Cooper

(Liberia)

Seward Montgomery Cooper has been a judge of the World Bank Administrative Tribunal since 2019 and currently serves as its Vice President. From 2011 to 2016, he served as Legal Advisor to the President of Liberia and was a member of the Cabinet. Prior to that, he became the first head of the African Development Bank Group’s Integrity and Anti-Corruption office and served as Chief Counsel and Head for Good Governance. He is the founding editor-in-chief of the African Development Bank’s “Law for Development Review.” Cooper has litigated cases at both trial and appellate levels and has served on several boards of directors, including the Board of Directors of the Ellen Johnson Sirleaf Presidential Center for Women & Development and the Management Board of the African Legal Support Facility, both of which he also chaired. He served as president of the Liberia Chamber of Commerce and adjunct professor of business law at the University of Liberia. He is admitted as counsellor-at-law of the Supreme Court of Liberia and the Supreme Court of the United States. Cooper holds a JD from the University of Wisconsin Law School, United States, and a BBA from the University of Liberia.

Shinichi Ago

(Japan)

Shinichi Ago is Professor Emeritus at Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan and currently attorney-at-law at TNY Law Office. Ago served as a judge (2013-2020) and President (2020-2022) of the Asian Development Bank Administrative Tribunal and has been a member of International Labour Organization’s Committee of Experts on the Application of Conventions and Recommendations since 2015. He was professor at Ritsumeikan University from 2013 to 2023 and at Kyushu University from 1993 to 2013. Ago was a member of the Science Council of Japan from 2006 to 2020 and Chairperson of its Human Rights Committee from 2010 to 2014. He is a member of multiple academic associations, including the International Law Association, Asian Society of International Law, Asian Society of Labour Law, International Society of Labour and Social Security Law, and Japanese Society of International Law. Ago holds a PhD from the University of Geneva, Switzerland, and a Master of Laws and a Bachelor of Laws from the University of Tokyo, Japan.

Giuliana Canè – Executive Secretary

(Italy/United Kingdom/Malta)

Giuliana Canè served as Executive Secretary of the Administrative Tribunal of the Inter-American Development Bank Group from 2016 to 2026. Previously, she was Legal Counsel at the World Bank’s International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes and held legal and advisory roles within the World Bank Group. Earlier in her career, she served at the Italian Prime Minister’s Office, leading the investment chapter of Italy’s G8 Presidency. She also practiced law at Baker & McKenzie in Rome. She is admitted to practice law in the District of Columbia, New York (inactive), Italy (inactive), and before the Supreme Court of the United States. She is also an adjunct professor at the American University. Canè holds an LLM from the Georgetown University Law Center, United States, as well as degrees from the College of Europe, Belgium, and the Luiss Guido Carli University, Italy.