 The civil service is independent of government and composed mainly of career bureaucrats hired on professional merit rather than appointed or elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. The civil servant or public servant is a person employed in the public sector on behalf of a government department or agency. The extent of civil servants of a state as part of the civil service varies from country to country. In the United Kingdom, for instance, only crowned national government employees are referred to as civil servants whereas county or city employees are not. Many consider the study of service to be a part of the field of public administration. Workers in non-departmental public bodies sometimes called kuangos may also be a class of civil servants for the purpose of statistics and possibly for their terms and conditions. Collectively a state's civil servants form its civil service or public service. An international civil servant or international staff member is a civilian employee who is employed by an intergovernmental organization. These international civil servants do not resort under any national legislation from which they have immunity of jurisdiction but are governed by internal staff regulations. All disputes related to international civil service are brought before special tribunals created by these international organizations such as, for instance, the administrative tribunal of the ILO. Specific referral can be made to the International Civil Service Commission ICSC of the United Nations, an independent expert body established by the United Nations General Assembly. Its mandate is to regulate and coordinate the conditions of service of staff in the United Nations common system while promoting and maintaining high standards in the international civil service.