Tribunal Overview | QICDRC

The QFC Regulatory Tribunal is a specialist appeals body, established pursuant to the Law of the Qatar Financial Centre, designed to hear complaints raised by individuals and corporate bodies against decisions of the QFC Authority, Regulatory Authority and other QFC Institutions.

The Regulatory Tribunal, which is made up of international legal and judicial regulatory law experts, is a wholly independent body.

The Regulatory Tribunal is serviced by a Registry team, headed by the Registrar, which is responsible for the case management of appeals that come before the Regulatory Tribunal. The Registrar and his team of expert case managers and support staff are available to assist Regulatory Tribunal-users who have queries in relation to commencing an appeal, or who are seeking assistance as to the practices and procedures to be adopted before the Regulatory Tribunal.

The jurisdiction of the Regulatory Tribunal is set out in Article 8(2)(c) of the QFC Law (as amended) which provides that:

“The Regulatory Tribunal shall have the jurisdiction to hear Appeals raised by individuals and corporate bodies against decisions of The QFC Authority, The Regulatory Authority, other QFC institutions, and other entities over whose disputes jurisdiction given to the Regulatory Tribunal by law.”

In addition, Article 14 of Law No 15 of 2021 empowers the Regulatory Tribunal to hear appeals relating to a decision to revoke or suspend the licenses of registered companies operating within the Qatar Free Zones.

Our Judges

The judges of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal are appointed to the Regulatory Tribunal based upon their legal and judicial expertise in the resolution of regulatory disputes. They come from a variety of civil and common law jurisdictions. The judges of the Regulatory Tribunal observe a Judicial Code of Conduct, the guiding principles of which are independence, impartiality, integrity and propriety.

Chairman

Sir William Blair

English

Sir William Blair has been Chairman of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2019, although he previously held this role from 2009-2011.

He graduated from the University of Oxford and practiced at the English Bar where he specialised in the law of banking and finance.

He became a Queen’s Counsel in 1994 and was Chairman of the Commercial Bar Association between 2003 and 2005. He was appointed a High Court Judge in England and Wales in 2008, and became President of the Board of Appeal of the European Supervisory Authorities in 2012. He served as Chairman of the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Tribunal until March 2011 and was a judge in London’s Commercial Court between 2008 and 2017, becoming Judge in Charge of the Commercial Court in 2016.

Sir William is a member of London’s Financial Markets Law Committee, and chairs the Monetary Law Committee of the International Law Association (MOCOMILA). He is a Visiting Professor at the London School of Economics (LSE), Peking University (PKU) and East China University of Political Science and Law (ECUPL).

In 2016, The College of Law at Qatar University (QU-LAWC) established the Sir William Blair Chair in Alternative Dispute Resolution.

In 2017, Sir William was appointed Professor of Financial Law and Ethics at Queen Mary University of London, based at the Centre for Commercial Law Studies.

In August 2018, he was appointed Chair of the Bank of England’s new Enforcement Decision Making Committee.

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Judges

Edwin Glasgow CBE QC

English

Edwin Glasgow QC has been a judge of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2015.
Edwin Glasgow QC has extensive experience in commercial and general litigation, as counsel, arbitrator and mediator. In addition to his UK practice he has been involved in commercial cases in USA, Hong Kong, Africa, Australia and the Caribbean; professional negligence in Singapore and USA; and Human Rights cases in a number of jurisdictions including Malaysia and Africa.
With more than 40 years of legal experience, Edwin Glasgow has served as a judge on several prestigious panels and lectured on law and advocacy around the world. He is renowned for his advocacy and forensic skills but also as a popular and approachable arbitrator and outstandingly successful mediator.

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Gopal Subramanium

Indian

Gopal Subramanium has been a supplementary judge of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2015.
Gopal Subramanium is a Senior Advocate of the Supreme Court of India. In 1993, he was designated as Senior Counsel suo motu by the Supreme Court of India before becoming Additional Solicitor General of India in 2005 through 2009 whereby he was made Solicitor General of India- a post he held until 2014. From 2010-2011 he was Chairman of the Bar Council of India

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Laurence Li SC

Chinese

Laurence Li SC has been a judge of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2011.

Laurence Li SC has extensive experience and multi-faceted expertise in financial law and regulation. As a barrister, he is a foremost practitioner in this area in Hong Kong. Previously he worked as a regulator in senior positions in the Securities and Futures Commission. He also chairs the Financial Services Development Council, which is a body tasked to promote the financial services industry and markets.

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Dr. Muna Al-Marzouqi

Qatari

Dr Muna Al-Marzouqi has been a judge of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2021. She earned her LL.B in Law with Order of Excellence from Qatar University. She holds an LL.M from University of California Berkeley in U.S.A. and an S.J.D from Tulane University in U.S.A. in the field of maritime law. Dr. Muna is an assistant professor at Qatar University College of Law since 2011, where she teaches maritime law and commercial law. Between 2018-2020 she was the Associate Dean for Research and Graduate studies at the College.

Since 2020, she has been appointed as an Associate Vice President for Academic Planning & Quality Assurance at Qatar University. She graduated from Qatar Leadership Center in 2018. She is also a member of the Anti-doping Appeal Panel (Qatar Anti-doping committee) and a licensed lawyer before the Qatari Courts.

She has been awarded the Excellence in Education Gold Medal from Qatar University in 2011 and Excellence in Teaching Award from Qatar University College of law in 2013. In 2017, she won the Georgetown University Fellowship Award. She received the Education Excellence Award (doctorate degree category) in 2018 from the Amir of Qatar Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani. She was awarded the Excellence in Research Award from Qatar University College of Law in 2018.

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Sean Hagan

American

Sean Hagan has been a judge of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2019.

He was General Counsel and Director of the Legal Department since 2004, until his retirement from the IMF in September 2018. In this capacity, he advised the Fund’s management, Executive Board and membership on all legal aspects of the Fund’s operations, including its regulatory, advisory and lending functions. He has published extensively on both the law of the Fund and a broad range of legal issues relating to the prevention and resolution of financial crisis, with a particular emphasis on insolvency and the restructuring of debt, including sovereign debt.

Prior to beginning work at the IMF, he was in private practice, first in New York and subsequently in Tokyo. He received his Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University Law Center and also received a Masters of Science in International Political Economy from the London School of Economics and Political Science. He is currently a Visiting Professor of Law at Georgetown Law.

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Registrar

Christopher Grout

Christopher has been the Registrar of the QICDRC since 2012. As Registrar of both the Qatar International Court and the QFC Regulatory Tribunal, Christopher is in charge of the Registry which is responsible for the case management of cases before the two bodies. As Registrar, he gives procedural guidance to parties to proceedings as well as gives directions in relation to the progression and management of active cases. He will also, where required by the judges, make costs assessments following the conclusion of a case. In addition, Christopher is a member of the QICDRC’s senior management team and of the Judicial Advisory Board.

He was Called to the Bar of England and Wales by the Honorable Society of the Inner Temple in 2007 and holds an LL.B from Newcastle University and an LL.M in Canon Law from Cardiff University.

From 2007 to 2009 he worked for the Ministry of Justice at the Court of Appeal (Criminal Division) in the Royal Courts of Justice, London. In 2009, he joined 15 New Bridge Street where he specialised as a criminal defence barrister appearing in the Magistrates Courts, Youth Courts, Crown Court, High Court and Court of Appeal.

Christopher has a keen interest in law and religion. He has authored and co-authored various articles and books on law and religion including, most recently, "Religion and Law in the United Kingdom", published by Wolters Kluwer. Since 2020, Christopher has been the convener of the Law and Religion Scholars Network which is run by the Centre for Law and Religion at Cardiff University, where he is also a Fellow of the Centre. In 2021, he was appointed Vice Chair of the Bar Standards Board's Religion and Belief Taskforce.

Christopher is a member of numerous associations, including the International Bar Association, Criminal Bar Association and the Ecclesiastical Law Society, having written for the Ecclesiastical Law Journal. He is also a member of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators (CIArb).

He has a keen interest in the development of legal education and has lectured widely whilst in the United Kingdom and Qatar.

In 2019, Christopher was appointed as a Deputy District Judge in England and Wales where he exercises a broad civil and family law jurisdiction.

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Judicial Alumni

The Rt. Hon Sir David Keene

English

Sir Keene has been Chairman of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2013. Prior to that, he served as Deputy President of the Qatar International Court.
Sir Keene became a High Court Judge, Queens Bench Division, in England and Wales in 1994, in which capacity he sat also in the Administrative Court and the Employment Appeal Tribunal. In 2000, he was appointed to the Court of Appeal, from which he retired in 2009. He is a member of the England and Wales Queen's Counsel Selection Panel and Associate of the Chartered Institute of Arbitrators.

From 2003 to 2007 he was Chairman of the Judicial Studies Board, responsible for the training of judges and magistrates in England and Wales. He was for some years the UK Chairman of the Franco-British Judicial co-operation committee. In addition he holds an Honorary LL.D from Brunel University, is an Honorary Fellow at Balliol College, University of Oxford, and is an Honorary Fellow of the Society of Advanced Legal Studies in London, where he was formerly a member of the Board.

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Michael Thomas CMG QC

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Professor Francois Gianviti

French

Professor Gianviti has been a judge of the QFC Regulatory Tribunal since 2011.
Professor Gianviti was the Director of the Legal Department at the International Monetary Fund in Washington, USA, from January 1986 and General Counsel since 1987, until his retirement in December 2004. He has since been advising the IMF in various consultancies. From 1967 to 1969, Justice Gianviti was Lecturer in Law, first at the Nancy School of Law, and subsequently at the Caen School of Law. In 1968, he was admitted to the Paris Bar. In 1969, he obtained the agrégation de droit privé et science criminelle of French universities and was appointed Professor of Law at the University of Besançon.

From 1970 through 1974, he was seconded to the International Monetary Fund Legal Department, as Counsellor, and later, Senior Counsellor. In 1974, Justice Gianviti became Professor of Law at the University of Paris XII. He was Dean of the School of Law from 1979 through 1985. He is a member of the Monetary Committee of the International Law Association. He has received decorations as a Chevalier des Palmes Académiques (France) and a Chevalier dans l'Ordre National du Mérite (France).

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Iain Milligan QC

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Professor Nisuke Ando

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