News & Events
News & Events
Jeddah: Alex Haines and Victoria Brown have been successful in the first ever substantive in-person hearing before the newly established Islamic Development Bank Group Administrative Tribunal. The Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDBG) – an International Financial Institution founded in 1973 and based in Jeddah, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia – established an International Administrative Tribunal (similar in nature to the Administrative Tribunals of the World Bank and IMF) that started operating in 2022 to hear disputes between the IsDBG and its staff members. Alex and Victoria acted for the successful Applicant in the first ever substantive hearing before the Tribunal, held in person in December 2022. Their win follows a remote interim hearing in another matter earlier in 2022, in which Alex and Courtney…
News, International 18 Jan, 2023
Following their win before the OAS Administrative Tribunal in the case of Griner v Secretary General of the OAS Judgment 169 (31st August 2022), Alex Haines and Victoria Brown have secured another victory in the case of LaGuerre v Secretary General of the OAS, Resolution 413 (21st October 2022). After Mr LaGuerre’s case had been filed in March 2022, the OAS filed two motions: “Motion to dismiss the case in its entirety for being frivolous and failing to make a claim upon which relief can be granted”. “Motion in support of imposition of the filing fee therefore denying and dismissing the Complainants request for a waiver of said filing fee with prejudice”. The issue of wider interest in this case…
News 2 Dec, 2022
Alex Haines (Outer Temple Chambers) and Camila Zapata Besso (Doughty Street Chambers) successfully represented an individual in an international disciplinary case of alleged misconduct brought by the Ethics Office of the Inter-American Development Bank (‘IADB’), a regional Multilateral Development Bank and International Financial Institution headquartered in Washington DC. The mandate of the IADB’s Office of Institutional Integrity is limited to investigating external parties only. For former Bank staff members (such as the client in this case), however, the Ethics Office has jurisdiction to investigate and bring cases of alleged misconduct. Two and a half years after he was originally interviewed by the IADB’s Office of Institutional Integrity and the Ethics Office, and following detailed written representations made by Alex and…
News 30 Nov, 2022
James Counsell KC and Alex Haines, who were instructed by Janes Solicitors, represented the contemnor in a landmark appeal to the CA against the findings of contempt and the sanction imposed. The Court of Appeal gave helpful guidance on when permission to appeal is needed and on the Court’s power retrospectively to dispense with service of the injunction under the new CPR Part 81 regime. In Hussain v Business Mortgage Finance 4 PLC & Ors [2022] EWCA Civ 1264, delivered on 4th October 2022, the Court of Appeal (Arnold, Stuart-Smith and Nugee LJJ) gave judgment upholding the committal order against the Appellant by Mr Justice Miles and the ensuing 24-month sentence of imprisonment, the maximum term. The Judgment is available…
The OAS Administrative Tribunal has handed down judgment in Griner v Secretary General of the OAS, judgment no. 169. Alex Haines and Victoria Brown appeared for the successful Complainant during a three-day hearing at the OAS’s headquarters in Washington DC in April 2022 before all six judges of the Tribunal sitting en banc for the first time. In its historic decision, the Tribunal changed the applicable standard of proof for cases of serious misconduct. The landmark win entirely vindicates Mr Griner, whom the Tribunal ordered be re-instated with back-pay, or be awarded the maximum available under the Tribunal’s Statute; the latter for only the second time in the Tribunal’s history, and for the first time since the 1980s. The Trump…
News, Public Law 4 Oct, 2022
Earlier this Summer, Alex Haines and Courtney Step-Marsden were instructed in an action against the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDBG), a regional Multilateral Development Bank based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Ahead of filing full Applications on the merits, Alex Haines and Courtney Step-Marsden lodged – through Provisional Applications – requests to suspend management’s decision to terminate the employment of five IsDBG Staff Members. Following the IsDBG Administrative Tribunal’s first ever hearing on Saturday 13 August 2022, the Tribunal agreed that the discretionary power of the management in international organisations is neither an absolute nor an arbitrary power and it remained subject to judicial review by the Tribunal. It consequently declared its jurisdiction to examine the case and the President of…
News 31 Aug, 2022
Alex Haines and Courtney Step-Marsden have been instructed in a mini-class action against the Islamic Corporation for the Development of the Private Sector before the Islamic Development Bank Group Administrative Tribunal. The newly established Islamic Development Bank Group Administrative Tribunal (IsDBGAT or Tribunal) is based in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, and hears cases brought by international civil servants who work at the Islamic Development Bank Group (IsDBG). The IsDBG is comprised of the Islamic Development Bank (IsDB), Islamic Research & Training Institute (IRTI), Islamic Corporation for Development of the Private Sector (ICD), Islamic Corporation for Insurance of Investment and Export Credit (ICIEC), and International Islamic Trade Finance Corporation (ITFC). The IsDBG is a regional Multilateral Development Bank (MDB) whose mission includes the promotion…
News, International 12 Jul, 2022
Outer Temple’s Alex Haines was instructed to provide expert advice on the sale of Chelsea FC and the implications of Russian sanctions imposed on club. Alex Haines – member of the Attorney General’s Civil Panel and Outer Temple’s specialist sanctions team – was instructed by the legal team at Her Majesty’s Treasury to advise on the sale of Chelsea Football Club and the proceeds thereof in light of the designation of its former owner, Roman Abramovich, under Russia sanctions. On 10 March 2022, Mr Abramovich was sanctioned by the UK Government and, as a result, the Club operated within the confines and constraints caused by the imposition of sanctions. The sanctions imposed on Mr Abramovich presented unique and unforeseen challenges…
Business Crime, News, Sports 29 Jun, 2022
Alex Haines and Jeremy Scott-Joynt are instructed in a case involving the criteria for reclassification from Economist to Financial Sector Expert for an international civil servant before the International Monetary Fund Administrative Tribunal (IMFAT) in Washington DC. The case deals not only with the personal consequences of the IMF’s decision for the Applicant, but also with the novel issue of whether a regulatory gap – in this case the lack of formal criteria (being in fact unpublished, undisclosed and rarely applied) – is within the IMFAT’s jurisdiction. The International Monetary Fund (IMF), having been conceived in July 1944 at the Bretton Woods Conference in New Hampshire, formally came into existence on 27th December 1945 when its first 29 member countries signed its…
News, International 6 May, 2022
Alex Haines and Henry Reid have recently been instructed in a case before the African Union (“AU”) Administrative Tribunal, an international administrative tribunal (similar in nature to both the World Bank Administrative Tribunal and United Nations Dispute Tribunal) which is based in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The African Union The AU is a continental union and regional organisation – equivalent to the European Union – consisting of the 55 member states that make up the countries of the African continent. In 2001, the AU was created to replace the Organisation of African Unity (“OAU”) and it was officially launched in 2002. The evolution of this institution was the outcome of a consensus by African leaders that there was a need to refocus…
News, International 6 Apr, 2022
Alex Haines and Victoria Brown successfully represented the applicants in two recent WBAT cases. The World Bank Administrative Tribunal (“WBAT”) delivered last week its 8th November 2021 judgments in Cases Nos. 659 (GH v International Finance Corporation) and 660 (GI v International Finance Corporation). Alex Haines and Victoria Brown represented two Heads of Funds at the International Finance Corporation (“IFC”), one of the five World Bank Group Agencies together with the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (“IBRD”), International Development Association (“IDA”), International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (“ICSID”) and Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (“MIGA”). The decision The WBAT ordered the IFC to pay compensation to the Applicants in the amount of six months’ salary net of taxes for the…
News, International 16 Dec, 2021
In March 2020, the European Court of Justice was asked, for the first time, for the proper interpretation of Article 5 of the Blocking Regulation in the case of Bank Melli Iran v Telekom Deutschland GmBH. John McKendrick QC and Alex Haines examine the Bank Melli case and Blocking Regulation below. The Background On 28th November 2018, after US secondary sanctions on Iran came back into force earlier that month, the Hamburg District Court granted an interim injunction in Bank Melli Iran v Telekom Deutschland GmBH 319 O 265/18 on the basis of the EU Blocking Regulation (Council Regulation (EC) No 2271/96). The court ordered Deutsche Telekom, the defendant, to reinstate internet and telephone services to the claimant, Bank Melli Iran, after it had stopped services…
Legal Blog & Publications, International 3 Jun, 2020
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