The Governing Council appointed by consensus Professor Herbert Kronke (University of Heidelberg, Germany) to the post of Secretary-General of UNIDROIT. He will take up his functions in September 1998.
The Council appointed the following as corrrespondents of the Institute: *
Drafting of Uniform Rules for International Interests in Mobile Equipment - The Council decided to set up a Steering and Revisions Committee, whose meeting is scheduled for June 1998, to refine the texts of the preliminary draft Unidroit Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and of the preliminary draft Protocol on matters specific to aircraft equipment, in preparation for the meeting of the committee of governmental experts to be held in Rome in January 1999.
The Council also expressed satisfaction at the work in progress in respect of preliminary draft Protocols on matters specific to railway rolling stock and space objects, and noted that co-operation links had been instituted with the relevant inter-governmental organisations. It also agreed that the Secretariat should contact the International Road Transport Union with a view to determining whether it might be interested in encompassing lorries within the future Convention's sphere of application and therefore in the preparation of a Protocol thereto on matters specific to lorries.
1. International interests in mobile equipment
b. Other items under consideration, subject to the identification of external funding
1. Model law on disclosure (franchising)
c. Items placed on a reserve list pending further work
1. Secured transactions in general
INSTITUTIONAL ASPECTS
Mr Pierre BIENVENU - Attorney (Ogilvy Renault), Montreal (Canada)
SCIENTIFIC ACTIVITY
Mr George BROUWER - Chairman and Chief Executive (Invest Australia), Victoria (Australia)
Mr Attila HARMATHY - Professor, Eötvös Loránd University, Budapest (Hungary)
Mr Nicholas KASIRER - Director, Quebec Research Centre of Private & Comparative Law, McGill University, Montreal (Canada)
Mr Charalambos PAMBOUKIS - Associate Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Athens (Greece)
Mr Francisco José SANCHEZ-GAMBORINO - Attorney, Madrid (Spain)
Mr Sandro SCHIPANI - Professor, Faculty of Law, University of Rome "Tor Vergata", Rome; Director, Centre of Latin-American Legal Studies (CNR) (Italy)
Mr Wouter STURMS - Assistant to the Secretary General, Ministry of Justice, The Hague (Netherlands)
Mr Jan SVIDRON - Attorney; Associate Professor, Comenius University, Bratislava (Slovakia)
Mr Don WALLACE - President, International Law Institute; Professor, Faculty of Law, Georgetown University, Washington (United States of America)
Mr Gerhard WALTER - Director, Institut pour la Procédure civile et le Droit international privé en Suisse et ŕ l'étranger, University of Bern (Switzerland)
Drafting of a guide to international franchising - The Governing Council authorised the publication of the English version of the draft Guide to International Master Franchise Arrangements. Publication is scheduled for June 1998, with publication of the French version to follow shortly after.
I. Preparation of uniform law instruments
a. Priority items:
II. Activities connected with the unification of law
2. The UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts
2. Model law on leasing
3. Transnational rules for civil procedure
4. Uniform rules applicable to [road] transport
2. Civil liability in connection with the carrying out of dangerous activities
3. Contracts for services
1. Legal co-operation programme
2. Promotion of Unidroit activities and instruments (in particular the Internet site)
3. Unidroit publications
4. Data bank on uniform law (in collaboration with the Unidroit Foundation)
I. FIRST SESSION OF THE WORKING GROUP FOR THE PREPARATION OF A SECOND ENLARGED EDITION OF THE UNIDROIT PRINCIPLES OF INTERNATIONAL COMMERCIAL CONTRACTS
The Working Group held its first session at Unidroit from 16 to 20 March 1998. The session was attended by Professors M.J. BONELL (UNIDROIT), A. DI MAJO (Italy), A. EL KHOLY (Egypt), E.A. FARNSWORTH (U.S.A.), P. FINN (Australia), M. FONTAINE (Belgium), M. FURMSTON (United Kingdom), HUANG DANHAN (China), C. JAUFFRET-SPINOSI (France), A. KOMAROV (Russian Federation), O. LANDO (Chairman of the Commission on European Contract Law), P. SCHLECHTRIEM (Germany) and T. UCHIDA (Japan). Excused were Professors L.O. BAPTISTA (Brazil), P.-A. CRÉPEAU (Canada), K.S. DATE-BAH (Ghana) and A.S. HARTKAMP (Netherlands) as well as Mr G. HERRMANN (UNCITRAL) and Mr GRIGERA-NAON (ICC Court of Arbitration) who had been invited to attend as observers.
Following the opening remarks of Mr W. RODINŇ, Secretary-General a.i., who stressed the great importance the Institute attached to the ongoing work on the UNIDROIT Principles, the Working Group appointed Professor M.J. Bonell as Chairman. Ms Emanuela GILLARD acted as Secretary to the Working Group.
The Working Group was seized of a paper prepared by the Secretariat (UNIDROIT 1998 Study L - Doc. 55) dealing with the question of the revision of the present text of the UNIDROIT Principles and the new topics for inclusion in the second edition.
As concerned the first item, the Working Group deemed that, given the extremely favourable reception of the first edition of the UNIDROIT Principles worldwide and the fact that only few substantial criticisms had been made as to its content, the extent to which the present text needed some revision should be decided at a later stage, also in the light of the growing body of case law. In this respect, the Chairman informed the Group that the Center of Comparative and Foreign Law Studies was preparing a data base of the international case law and bibliography relating to the UNIDROIT Principles, following the existing data base, UNILEX, which related to CISG. The Group, while expressing its appreciation for this initiative, recommended that all efforts be taken to assist the Center in collecting the relevant arbitral decisions, at least in the form of abstracts, omitting any details that might lead to identification of the case.
The Group spent most of the session considering possible new topics to be included in the second edition of the UNIDROIT Principles. After a thorough discussion of the various topics presented in the Secretariat's paper, the Working Group decided to concentrate initially on:
The next session of the Working Group is scheduled to be held from 22 to 26 February 1999 in Bozen/Bolzano, South Tyrol, Italy and will be hosted by the newly established School of Economics of the Free University of that city.
One of the more noteworthy events under this heading was the seminar organised by
Freshfields, London, on 13 March 1998, entitled "UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts: Application in International Commercial Arbitration". A brief summary of the seminar is included in the "Congresses & Colloquia" section of the Uniform Law Review, 1998-1 (p. 134).
The Group appointed a Rapporteur for each topic and agreed that, starting from its next session, it would examine position papers to be prepared by M.J. Bonell (agency), P. Schlechtriem (limitation of actions), M. Fontaine (assignment), M. Furmston (contracts for the benefit of third parties), C. Jauffret-Spinosi (set-off) and P. Finn (waiver). Moreover, E.A. Farnsworth was invited to prepare a draft model clause for the choice by the parties of the UNIDROIT Principles as the rules of law governing their contract. T. Uchida was invited to prepare a note on possible adaptations of the UNIDROIT Principles in the light of electronic commerce.
II. SEMINARS ON THE UNIDROIT PRINCIPLES
Work on the drafting of a preliminary draft Unidroit Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment has triggered a spate of meetings and seminars both nationally and worldwide. In particular, the London-based British Institute of International and Comparative Law organised a conference on 2 March 1998 entitled "Cross-Border finance and Security: The Unidroit Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment in the final stages of negotiation", the programme of which is included in the "Congresses & Colloquia" section of the Uniform Law Review, 1998-1 (p. 135).
The Aircraft Working Group involved in the Unidroit project, together with the International Air Transport Association (IATA), are promoting a series of working sessions at regional level, intended for Governments, with a view to studying the preliminary draft Unidroit Convention and Aircraft Protocol in preparation for the negotiations which are due to commence during the first meeting of the committee of governmental experts in January 1999. The first of these regional meetings took place in Bangkok on 3 February, covering the Asian-Pacific region; the second is scheduled to take place in Miami on 22 April, covering the Americas; and the third will be held at the headquarters of the European Commission in Brussels on 14 May, covering Europe.
The Convention will enter into force on 1 July 1998 between the following five Contracting States: China, Ecuador, Lithuania, Paraguay and Romania, and on 1 September 1998 in respect of Peru.
Latvia deposited its instrument of accession to the Convention on 6 August 1997 (entry into force for that State on 1 March 1998). On 1 March 1998 therefore, the following six States were Contracting Parties** to the Convention: France (1 May 1995); Hungary (1 December 1996); Italy (1 May 1995); Latvia (1 March 1998); Nigeria (1 May 1995); Panama (1 October 1997).
The Russian Federation has completed the internal procedures needed for accession to the Convention (the President of the Federation having signed the Act of Accession on 8 February 1998) and is expected to deposit its instrument of accession with the depositary shortly.
Latvia deposited its instrument of accession to the Convention on 6 August 1997; the Convention entered into force for that State on 1 March 1998. On 1 March 1998 therefore, the following five States were Contracting Parties *** to the Convention: France (1 May 1995); Hungary (1 December 1996); Italy (1 May 1995); Latvia (1 March 1998); Nigeria (1 May 1995).
Germany adopted the national act of ratification of the Convention on 25 February 1998 (Bundesgesetzblatt Jahrgang 1998, II, n. 5 of 4 March 1998) and is expected to deposit its instrument of ratification with the depositary shortly.
Readers are reminded that the XVth International Congress of Comparative Law, organised by the International Academy of Comparative Law in Bristol (United Kingdom) from 26 July to 1 August 1998, has selected as one of the general topics for its discussions on Commercial Law the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts (General Rapporteur: Prof. M.J. Bonell) (cf. the detailed programme published in ULR 1996-4, p. 713).
The XVIIth Meeting of the International Association of Law Libraries, organised in co-operation with Unidroit and entitled: "International Efforts towards Unification of Law", will be held in Rome (with visits to Florence) from 20-26 September 1998. The provisional programme is reproduced in the "Congresses & Colloquia" section of the Uniform Law Review, 1998-1 (p. 140).
Buenos Aires (Argentina) will be the venue from 12-14 November 1998 of a symposium entitled "Contratos Comerciales Internacionales: los Trabajos de Unidroit", organised by the Universidad Argentina de la Empresa, Buenos Aires. The provisional programme is reproduced in the "Congresses & Colloquia" section of the Uniform Law Review, 1998-1 (p. 141).
The official Unidroit Internet World Wide Web site now has its own domain name: http://www.unidroit.org. While maintaining its original structure and editorial presentation, the content was substantially enlarged early in 1998 and the French language version added.
The main recent additions to the site are: Unidroit News, a section of the Uniform Law Review appropriately enhanced for reading via the Internet; the complete version of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts ("black letter rules" and comments); one of the items in the "Articles" section of the Uniform Law Review (as of issue 1997-3); the tables of contents of the series Unidroit Proceedings and Papers (as of 1996), the main source of UNIDROIT documentation.
The totally bilingual (English/French) UNIDROIT Internet Web site now comprises the following sections:
Our readers' comments and suggestions are most welcome.
The following scholars conducted research at Unidroit between November 1997 and March 1998:
Ms DING DING (Professor, Faculty of Law, International Business and Economics University, Beijing, China) conducted private law research on contract law, with special emphasis on the UNIDROIT Principles and the reform of Chinese contract law (November 1997 - February 1998), part-financed by the Unidroit legal co-operation budget. Ms DING subsequently moved on to the Institut suisse de droit comparé (Lausanne, Switzerland) for a three-month research period organised as part of the co-operation programme between that institution and Unidroit.
Mr Carlos VALEDÓN (Attorney, Torres, Plaz & Araujo; Lecturer at the Universidad Central de Venezuela, Caracas) chose the UNIDROIT Principles as the focus of his research in light of the preparation of the Venezuelan report to the Bristol Congress (August 1998) of the International Academy of Comparative Law. His six-week stay at the Institute (February-March) was financed by the French Government.
Ms Cecilia FRESNEDO DE AGUIRRE (Professor at the Universidad de la República Oriental del Uruguay and at the Universidad Católica del Uruguay "Dámaso Antonio Larrańaga", Montevideo) and Ms Maria Blanca NOODT TAQUELA (Professor, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Argentina) conducted a joint study (six weeks, January - February) on conventions that unify private law and their incidence in domestic law, with part-financing from UNIDROIT's legal co-operation budget.
Mr Maris LEJNIEKS (Associate Professor at the Faculty of Law, University of Riga, Latvia) conducted research on the enforcement of maritime liens in Latvia in the context of international practice (February - March) with funding from the Korean Government.
* The name of the country in brackets indicates the nationality of the person in question. [Back to text]
** The date in brackets indicates the date of entry into force of the instrument for the State in question. [Back to text]
*** The date in brackets indicates the date of entry into force of the instrument for the State in question. [Back to text]