Memoirs in a Path for Tomorrow:

Dr. Fathi Kemicha

Description

From Tunisia, to Paris, and the World, this memoir shares the life story of a man who experienced an unprecedented, international career.

Dr. Fathi Kemicha is a man of more than a single culture who followed more than a single path in life. In Memoirs in a Path for Tomorrow, he reflects on his past so he can move forward.

This memoir chronicles the highlights of his life beginning with his early years in Tunisia and his arrival in Paris in 1973 where he embarked on an unprecedented career path. Sharing his journey and discoveries, Kemicha tells of his experiences as an artist, lawyer, international arbitrator, farmer, author of a thousand-page doctoral thesis at the University of Paris, as a visiting scholar at Yale, and as a son, father, and grandfather.

With the love of France and the attachment to his Tunisian roots, Kemicha puts his exceptional career and his unique experience to the service of the future by recommending to the youth “to persevere and believe.” Memoirs in a Path for Tomorrow is more than a collection of memories, it is a lesson of life and a reason to hope.

Sujets

• Túnez
• Bahréin
• Bahrain
• Biography
• Arbitration
• World Bank
• Tunisia
• International Court of Justice
• Autobiography
• Paris
• Banque mondiale
• Tunisie
• Bahreïn

Informations

• Publié par: Archway Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 décembre 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781665733786
• Langue: English

Extrait

MEMOIRS IN A PATH FOR TOMORROW:
THE JOURNEY OF AN ITINERANT LAWYER
 
 
 
 
Dr. Fathi Kemicha
 
 
 
 

 
 
Copyright © 2022 Dr. Fathi Kemicha .
 
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
 
This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.
 
 
Archway Publishing
1663 Liberty Drive
Bloomington, IN 47403
www.archwaypublishing.com
844-669-3957
 
Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.
 
Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Getty Images are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.
Certain stock imagery © Getty Images.
 
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3377-9 (sc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3376-2 (hc)
ISBN: 978-1-6657-3378-6 (e)
 
Library of Congress Control Number: 2022921702
 
 
 
Archway Publishing rev. date: 12/14/2022
CONTENTS
Foreword
Foreword to the French Edition
Preface
1.   The Life Before
My Father, My Guardian Angel!
My Mother, the Friend and Confidant
Kairouan and the Cinema
2.   The First Years in Paris: The Race for Diplomas
To Both of Us, Paris!
The University of Paris-X Nanterre
A Tribute to Professor Dominique Carreau
The Institute of Political Studies ofParis (Sciences Po)
The University of Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne and a PhD
Thesis Defense
A Tribute to Mansour Moalla
A Tribute to Hedi Mabrouk
Neuilly-sur-Seine
Loyalty to Paris
My Hidden Dream
3.   The Euro-Arab Arbitration
The Arbitration Council of the Franco-Arab Chamber of Commerce
A Tribute to President Pierre Bellet
A Tribute to Ahmed Sadek El-Kosheri
The Euro-Arab Arbitration System
The Euro-Arab Arbitration Colloquia
A Tribute to Shaikh Salah Al-Hejailan
4.   Lawyer at the Paris Bar
First Steps as a Lawyer at the Paris Bar
The Time of the Thin Cows
The Risks of the Job: The “Monsieur X” Affair—From Desert Sands to Yachts and Properties on the French Riviera
Knight of the Legion of Honor and the Ceremony to Receive the Insignia at the Paris Bar
5.   A Professional Life Dedicated to International Commercial Arbitration
Institutional Arbitration
London Court of International Arbitration
Dubai International Arbitration Centre
International Council for Commercial Arbitration
Arbitration Assignments
Being an Arbitrator
My Arbitrator Profile
Arbitration: A Rapidly Changing World
6.   The International Court of Justice
A Happy Coincidence Opens the Wayto The Hague
The Bahrain-Qatar Case
A Tribute to Jan Paulsson
A Night under the Stars on Hawar Island
Yale Law School: A Tribute to Professor Michael Reisman
Qatar’s Forged Documents: A Time of Suspicion
The Case of Forged Documents Brought to Court
The Hague and Scheveningen
Pleading before the International Court of Justice
The Uti Possidetis: The Retracted Debate by the Court
Decoration by the King of Bahrain
The Pakistan-India ICJ Case
A Tribute to Sir Elihu Lauterpacht, CBE, QC
7.   The International Law Commission in Geneva
The Campaign at the UN General Assembly in New York
The Commission’s Sessions in Geneva
The Friend, Charles Adams
8.   The Constitutional Court of Bahrain
Living in Bahrain
The Establishment of the Constitutional Court
The Inauguration of the Constitutional Court
9.   A Special Tribute to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain
The Bahrain-Qatar Case
The Constitutional Court
The Statesman and the Man
10.   The Sanctions Board: The World Bank, Washington, DC
The Early Days at the World Bank
The Chair of the Sanctions Board
A Tribute to Ibrahim Shihata
Meeting with President Robert Zoellick
Toward the Institutionalization of the Sanctions Board
The Legacy: Sanctions Board Achievements
Farewell to Washington, DC
11.   Back to Basics: Cultivating My Garden
Gentleman Farmer: Cultivate My Garden!
Dar Kemicha
The Temptation of Politics
Epilogue
Overcome the Fear of Tomorrow!
Time to Take Stock?
What’s Next?
FOREWORD

Jan Paulsson, honorary member of the Bar of Paris, professor, judge, and arbitr ator
A biography is sometimes referred to in English as “a life.” We thus speak of Boswell’s unique Life of Johnson or Sandburg’s singular Life of Lincoln . But for some subjects, this word just doesn’t fit. Whether such subjects achieved great fame or instead followed a path of a quieter but unconventional variety, it would be incongruously reductionist to speak of their life in the singular, because they have refused to follow a single path and therefore experienced a world without fences.
This modest but affecting volume comprises some highlights of the seemingly several lives of Fathi Kemicha, a man of more than a single culture, and more than a single path in life. Artist, lawyer, farmer, author of a thousand-page doctoral thesis at the University of Paris, visiting scholar at Yale, son, and father. Tunisian and French, to be sure, but also importantly engaged in many other environments, from Bahrain in the East to Washington in the West—never limited by boundaries and therefore at home in both private and public sectors, and ready when the time came, without manifesting any sense of a final port of call to “cultiver son jardin.” His is, above all, the story of a man and his relations with those whom he encountered on his path, friends to be enjoyed, all others to be given a chance … and maybe become friends.
This foreword will not anticipate the author’s own account of his journey and his discoveries. It will, however, make an observation that is absent there. While he mentions his role as an advocate before the World Court in The Hague in the remarkable case of Qatar v. Bahrain , those who observed him there will remember his presentation of Bahrain’s arguments on the possible relevance of the doctrine of uti possidetis , of fundamental importance to lawyers in the post-colonial world, which did not fail to capture the attention of learned commentators, such as Professor Emmanuel Decaux in “Affaire de la Délimitation Maritime et des Questions Territoriales entre Qatar et Bahrain, Fond (Arrêt du 16 Mars 2001)” (2001 Annuaire Français de Droit International , 177).
Jan Paulsson
August 2022
FOREWORD TO THE FRENCH EDITION

Bâtonnier Yves Repiquet, president of the Bar of Paris (2006– 2007)
Who, at the first glow of the autumn of an existence, has not felt the need to look back with this question: “What have I done with my life?”
This is the answer that Maître Fathi Kemicha has chosen to bring on his own, with a style clear and lively, in this book which, more than a collection of memories, is a lesson of life and a reason to hope.
Curiosity always on the alert and enthusiasm constantly maintained—powerful antidotes to aging—rub shoulders with openness to others, an irrepressible optimism, and the permanence of ethics without which no action, no behavior is worthwhile.
It celebrates filial love, devotion to the family, and the virtues of luck, if it is seized without delay.
The author takes the reader by the hand with simplicity and bonhomie to make him follow the astonishing and atypical course of a jurist, a lawyer to whom it was given to meet the highest personalities, who would become his friends.
Called upon to judge, as an arbitrator, disputes with immense stakes, with the double requirement of independence and impartiality always in mind, Mr. Kemicha was above all a lawyer.
Sometimes defending the humble and intervening in cases before the ordinary courts, sometimes in charge of the interests of large industrial groups, he was even called to participate in the defense of sovereign states before the highest international courts.
Caught up in this story with twists and turns, the reader waits eagerly to find out what new and high responsibilities will be entrusted to this man on whom hard work does not weigh, he who only sees it as a reason for satisfaction and a source of joy in life.
With the love of France and the attachment to his Tunisian roots, Fathi Kemicha puts his exceptional career and his unique experience to the service of the future by recommending to the youth “to persevere and believe.”
Bâtonnier Yves Repiquet
PREFACE
There are birthdays that one dreads and that, once they arrive, do not go unnoticed; my seventieth birthday was one of these birthdays in more than one way! People were coming out of a long period of hibernation due to a pandemic that took away loved ones—my father, in this case, whose death left my family and me powerless and inconsolable.
In addition, this imposed break away from airports and hotels made me face my past. It was here I realized that I have had several lives without being sure of the future that awaited me. This r