To mark the 50th anniversary of its establishment, the Administrative Tribunal of the Council of Europe organised an international colloquy on 19 and 20 March 2015 at the Palais de l’Europe. The colloquy, entitled “Common Focus and Autonomy of International Administrative Tribunals”, was devoted to different aspects of the activity of international administrative tribunals.

It brought together some 200 participants, including judges and former judges, registrars, researchers and persons appearing before the administrative tribunals of international organisations based in Europe and worldwide.

The Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Thorbjørn Jagland, spoke at the opening of the colloquy, as well as Christos Rozakis, Chair of the Administrative Tribunal, and Ali Bahadir, representative of the Staff Committee.

The colloquy was preceded, on 18 March, by a meeting of international administrative tribunals, following up on the meeting held in Washington on 3 April 2014 at the headquarters of the International Monetary Fund. This in camera meeting enabled judges and the registry staff of about 20 administrative tribunals of international organisations to address various issues, including their collaboration.

A common search interface project to facilitate research in databases of the various administrative tribunals, conducted in collaboration with the Council of Europe Directorate of Information Technology, was also examined during this meeting, as well as projects proposed by other tribunals in order to encourage and strengthen co-operation between the administrative tribunals of international organisations.

 Proceedings of the Colloquy