99TH SESSION OF UNIDROIT GOVERNING COUNCIL – SUMMARY CONCLUSIONS OF SECOND MEETING (23-25 SEPTEMBER 2020)

On 23-25 September 2020 , UNIDROIT hosted the second meeting of the 99th session of the UNIDROIT Governing Council in hybrid format, resuming from the first meeting that had been held in April/May 2020 via remote written procedure, opened and chaired by UNIDROIT President Professor Maria Chiara Malaguti.

The Governing Council confirmed Mr.  Arthur Hartkamp  as  First  Vice  President,  and  Mr.  Alexander  Komarov  as  Second  Vice  President as per the Rules  of  Procedure  governing  the  first  meeting  of  the  99th session. The Governing Council expressed its satisfaction with the work done by the Secretariat in 2019 and during the first months of the current year, and commended the UNIDROIT Foundation for its improved performance. In matters pertaining the definition of scope and priority of new projects on the Work Programme, the Council confirmed the high priority status for the projects on Effective Enforcement and Digital Assets, allowing the formation of  Working Groups for both projects; and confirmed the medium priority status for the project on the Legal Structure of Agricultural Enterprises and Bank Insolvency, allowing for exploratory work to continue to confirm the desirability of developing a uniform instrument on the subject and to further define the scope for presentation to the Governing Council at its 100th session in May 2021. The Governing Council also took note of the progress that had been made since the Governing Council’s remote session on the projects concerned with Warehouse Receipts and the Model Law on Factoring. The Council was also presented with a progress report on the work undertaken by the Secretariat in response to the COVID-19 pandemic: the preparation of a  series of guidance  documents  regarding how  COVID-19  affects a  number of leading UNIDROIT instruments and how they can help overcome the  challenges  deriving  from  the  pandemic  and  its  economic consequences, as well as related outreach initiatives. The 99th session proceeded with the adoption of three instruments : the ELI-UNIDROIT European Rules of Civil Procedure, the Tripartite Legal Guide to Uniform Legal Instruments in the Area of International Commercial Contracts (with a focus on sales), and the Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts. The Governing Council was further provided with an update on the status of implementation of the Rail, Space and MAC Protocols to the Cape Town Convention, as well as a presentation on the promotional events for the 25th anniversary of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and  the Project on the Private Art Collections.

Summary Conclusions

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