A New Fish in the Sea? The Collocation of the New NATO Mission Appeals Tribunal among International Administrative Tribunals

What is it about?

A new international administrative tribunal, named Mission Appeals Tribunals (MAT), has been established within NATO to adjudicate employment disputes between NATO-led missions and their staff members. Its constitutive process and several structural features are so unique that they may challenge its collocation in the sea of international administrative tribunals. However, by analyzing the norms of its constitutive instrument and the new case law of the MAT, its level of protection is equivalent to that provided by its counterparts established in other international organizations. The MAT is, therefore, a new judicial forum that has demonstrated so far to bring justice to NATO-led missions employees and dialogue with other international tribunals exchanging interpretations and practice and cross-fertilizing general principles already consolidated in other tribunals' case law. In addition, the revision process of its constitutive instrument is about to begin. In light of all this, the article represents a significant opportunity to assess various inconsistencies in the MAT's founding act also in light of the new case law developed by the Tribunal and in comparison with the experience pertaining to other international administrative tribunals established in other organizations.

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