Milan J.N Meetarbhan is a Barrister whose main focus areas are Public Law and International law.
Dr Meetarbhan has experience of both the public and private sectors at national and international levels as an academic, law practitioner, adviser to Government, international civil servant, regulator and diplomat.
He has a long record of public service having served inter alia as Senior Policy Adviser to the Prime Minister, Legal Adviser to the Ministry of Finance, Board Member of the Stock Exchange Commission and Chairman of Mauritius Telecom.
He was the Chief Executive of the Financial Services Commission from December 2005 to December 2010.
He served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative of the Republic of Mauritius to the United Nations from January 2011 to January 2015.
He worked as an international civil servant based in Paris from 1982 to 1986.
He had an academic career as Associate Professor and Head of the law school at the University of Mauritius. He has been Visiting Professor and guest lecturer at various universities and think-tanks and a speaker at several international conferences. He was Visiting Fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi from January to May 2016.
His book, “Mauritian Constitutional Law- Constitution of Mauritius with Commentaries” was released in August 2017.
In addition to his public service record, Dr Meetarbhan has experience of the private sector and of the corporate world.
He has been associated with the development of financial services in Mauritius since the mid 80’s when he was Legal Adviser at the Ministry of Finance. He was closely involved with the setting up of the Stock Exchange of Mauritius and served as a member of the first Board of the Stock Exchange Commission.
In 1997, he was appointed by the Government of Mauritius as Chair of the Financial Services Consultative Committee tasked with a review of the legal framework for financial services in Mauritius.
In the course of his law practice, he advised a number of international investors structuring their investments through Mauritius. He also served on the Board of several investment Funds.
He was Chief Executive of the Financial Services Commission from December 2005 to December 2010.
He has a long-standing interest in Ocean matters. He was Co-Chair of the United Nations Open-ended Informal Consultative Process on Oceans and the Law of the Sea from 2011-2014, President of the Assembly of the International Seabed Authority 2012-2013, Chair of the National Dialogue on Ocean Economy, Mauritius 2013 and was appointed as Special Envoy of the Government of Mauritius on Ocean matters. He chaired the Multi Stakeholder Dialogue on the Ocean Economy at the SIDS Summit, in Samoa in 2014 (and also acted as Rapporteur General of the Summit).
Dr Meetarbhan was a member of the Mauritian delegation in arbitration proceedings before a Tribunal set up under Annex 7 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.
Dr Meetarbhan was conferred the title of Honorary Fellow in Law by the University of Mauritius in October 2007.
He was made Grand Officer of the Star and Key of the Indian Ocean (G.O.S.K) in the National Day Honours list in 2010.
Dr. Meetarbhan studied law in London and Paris. He was called to the Bar at the Middle Temple and then obtained a Diplôme d’Etudes Approfondies en Droit des Relations Economiques Internationales et des Organisations Internationales from the Sorbonne, a Diplôme d’Etudes Supérieures Specialisées en Diplomatie et Relations Internationales from Université Paris X1 and a Doctorate in International Law from the Sorbonne.
