Roster of Experts

Prof. Daniel D. Bradlow, Chairperson

Prof. Bradlow is the SARCHI Professor of International Development Law and African Economic Relations at the University of Pretoria, South Africa and a Professor of Law at American University Washington College of Law (WCL) in Washington, D.C. He is the Chair of the Roster of Experts for the Independent Review Mechanism at the African Development Bank, a member of the Board of Directors of ILEAP (International Lawyers and Economists Against Poverty) and a member of the editorial advisory boards of the Journal of Law, Social Justice, and Global Development, the American University International Law Review and Sustainable Development Law and Policy.

His current scholarship focuses on the international financial institutions, creative financing for development, international legal aspects of sustainable and equitable development, and the legal aspects of debt and financial management. He has worked as a Senior Special Fellow in the Legal Aspects of Debt and Financial Management Programme of the United National Institute on Training and Research (UNITAR), a Consultant to the World Dams Commission, MEFMI (The Macroeconomic and Financial Management Institute for Eastern and Southern Africa), Pole-Dette, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, UNESCO, the United Kingdom’s Department for International Development and the MacArthur Foundation. He served as a member of the International Law Association’s Committee on Accountability of International Organizations and is currently the Co-Rapporteur of the International Law Association study group on the same topic. In 1996 he was a Visiting Professor at the Community Law Centre at the University of the Western Cape, South Africa. He has lectured in the United States and many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America on both the public and private aspects of international economic and financial law and on the negotiating and structuring of international economic transactions.    

Before becoming a legal academic, Professor Bradlow was a Research Associate at the International Law Institute and a consultant to the United Nations Centre on Transnational Corporations, as well as an attorney in private practice.  

His publications include books and articles on international financial law, the international financial institutions, foreign investment, inspection mechanisms in international financial institutions, regulatory frameworks for water, dams and dam safety, globalization and its implications for global economic governance and the changing responsibilities of the World Bank and the IMF in the management of the global economy.  Professor Bradlow holds degrees from the University of Witwatersrand in South Africa, and Northeastern University and Georgetown University in the USA and is a member of the New York and District of Columbia Bars.

Dr. Richard E. Bissell, Member

Dr. Richard Bissell has been a member of the Panel of Experts since July 2010.  He is also the Executive Director for Policy and Global Affairs of the National Research Council of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS).  He oversees fifteen units with a focus on science and technology policy, international scientific affairs, or the future science and engineering workforce.

Prior to joining the NAS in 1998, Dr. Bissell was the coordinator of the Interim Secretariat of the World Commission on Dams (1997-1998), a joint initiative of the World Bank and the World Conservation Union (IUCN).  During the period 1994-1997, he was the Chairman and a founding Member of the Inspection Panel at the World Bank, an independent advisory committee to the Board of Executive Directors.  He has also served in a similar role at the Asian Development Bank as a member of the Compliance Review Panel from 2003 to 2007.

Between 1986 and 1993, Dr. Bissell was Assistant Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development, appointed first to head the Bureau of Program and Policy Coordination.  In that position, he was responsible for Agency-wide policy development, review of development impact of projects at multilateral banks, evaluation processes throughout AID, and management of the annual budget process.   He then received a second Assistant Administrator appointment as head of the Bureau of Research and Development, where he was responsible for direction and management of a research portfolio in health, education, environment and agriculture, as well as technical support of AID field missions in nearly 100 countries.   He served on more than 50 official U.S. delegations to international conferences, including 25 occasions as head of delegation to bodies such as the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, World Malaria Congress, International Population Conference, and the Children’s Vaccine Initiative.

Dr. Bissell has been a professor at American University, Georgetown University, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies, and the University of Pennsylvania. Among his publications are seven books and a wide variety of articles in scholarly and policy journals.  He has served as editor of several professional journals.  He holds a B.A. from Stanford University and a Ph.D. from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, in international economics, with post-doctoral work at Princeton University.