New Presidium at the Federal Administrative Court

The United Federal Assembly, in line with the proposal of the Federal Administrative Court (FAC), today elected Vito Valenti President and Kathrin Dietrich Vice-President of the FAC for the remaining year of the 2021/2022 term of office. By law, both are also members of the Administrative Commission.

“I am honoured to be the first national from the Ticino to be elected President of the Federal Administrative Court. The main objective of the Court is to continue to hand down many good rulings in the shortest possible time. As President, I shall also have to ensure strategic leadership, push ahead with the digitalization process, and foster the attractiveness of the Court as an employer,” declared Vito Valenti after his election. The new President will take over from Marianne Ryter who has been appointed as judge to the Federal Supreme Court, on 1 January 2022.

Many years of judicial experience
Vito Valenti studied law in Zurich and in Fribourg and passed the Bar examination. In the course of his long career, the new FAC President taught law and economics at commercial schools, worked as a lawyer in Lugano, and sat as a judge on the Swiss Asylum Appeals Commission starting from 1992. He was appointed judge to the FAC on 1 January 2007, i.e. from the Court’s inception. Over the years, he has assumed a number of management functions including as member of the Administrative Commission (from 2011 to 2013), President of Division III of the Court (from 2014 to 2018), President of the Presidential Council (from 2016 to 2018), and Vice-President of the FAC from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2021.

Kathrin Dietrich, the new Vice-President, passed her Bar examination after studying law in Fribourg and Bern and went on to complete a CAS in construction and real estate law and a CAS in mediation. After acquiring experience in the private sector, she worked as a registrar at the Commission of Appeal for Infrastructure and Environment where she was elected judge in 2002 and vice-president in 2006. She too has been a member of the FAC since its inception, exercising her functions as judge first in Division I, which she presided from 2011 to 2013, and then in Division II. She also sat on the Administrative Commission from 2017 to 2018.

In accordance with FAC rules of procedure, both the President and the Vice-President will partially maintain their functions as judges with Divisions III and II respectively.

Remaining members of the Administrative Commission
The three other judges on the Administrative Commission for the current 2021/2022 term of office are incumbent members Yannick Antoniazza-Hafner (Division VI), Claudia Cotting-Schalch (Division VI) and Walter Lang (Division V). The members of the Administrative Commission are elected for a two-year term of office and may be re-elected once.