The President of the organisation, Maria Chiara Malaguti, declares: “We need to bring the systems together to create opportunities”.
ROME – Call it “legal diplomacy” or, if you prefer, jurists for development, which could be considered synonymous with cooperation and exchange that become opportunities in turn.
This is the mindset of a training initiative which, starting on 19 June, for a period of three weeks, will bring jurists, State lawyers and drafters of legislative texts to Rome from 17 African countries.
FROM 19th JUNE AT THE SEAT OF Unidroit IN VIA PANISPERNA
The sessions have been organised by the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law, a multilateral entity in the Italian capital since 1926, which has at present 65 Member States across five continents. “We have selected Africa for a master’s programme not addressed to young people who have just finished their studies, but to those who are already working in government administration, who will arrive in Rome after having first attended an online module lasting two weeks,” Maria Chiara Malaguti, President of Unidroit, explains; she is a professor of international law at the Università Cattolica Sacro Cuore. “We want to raise awareness in the continent with respect to the possibilities of unifying law by drawing juridical instruments closer together. The objective is not that of fashioning all the same, nor standardising, but that of modernising and forging systems to be compatible and connected to each other”.
PERSPECTIVE ON SUSTAINABILITY
The premise is that, between 19 June and 7 July, in Via Panisperna, 28, in the halls of Villa Aldobrandini, solid foundations will be laid in the scope of sustainability. “As we see it, a country will grow if it has modern legislation that is compatible with neighbouring countries and with prospective trade partners”, Prof. Malaguti observes. “And we must ensure that such communication take place not only in relation with western countries, but within the continent itself, and also through regional organisations like the African Union”.
22 JURISTS FROM ALGERIA TO TANZANIA, FROM MALAWI TO MAURITANIA
Twenty-two jurists selected by qualification and candidature will participate in this initiative called the “International Program for Law Development”, in its second edition, directed by Marco Nicoli. These jurists come from across the continent: from Algeria to South Africa, from Nigeria to Somalia, from Mauritania to Tanzania, from Egypt to Malawi.
“Visibility will also be given to instruments for accessing credit and finance”, says Prof. Malaguti. “We have international treaties that concern fundamental guarantees for infrastructure financing, i.e., machinery or large projects; moreover, there are instruments for agriculture available for local communities, to ensure that their production can participate in the international supply chain”.
OTHER APPOINTMENTS FOR 2023
These are themes and opportunities that will be addressed in greater depth in 2023, including via remote meetings, with participants from last year’s edition connecting from Algeria, Cameroon, Tanzania, and Kenya.
HOW TO FINANCE GOOD IDEAS
One strength registered in the DNA of a multilateral organisation like Unidroit is that of transverse and multidirectional exchange. Prof. Malaguti underlines this by mentioning a convention regarding claims of restitution of stolen or illegally exported cultural objects. “From African countries we have received a crucial contribution, starting from a strong interest on this issue”, the President emphasises. “Then there is the innovation component, regarding start-ups and new technologies, which are rapidly developing: ideas are arriving from Africa which are valid for all countries of the world and for international cooperation, which come into play when someone has a great idea but, at the same time, needs the possibility of finance in order to implement it”.
Original article (in Italian): Unidroit guarda all’Africa: giuristi a Roma da 17 Paesi – DIRE.it
Professor Iacopo Donati is the UNIDROIT/Bank of Italy Chair Holder and is mainly responsible for assisting in the Bank Insolvency project. He is Professor of Corporate and Insolvency Law at the University of Siena, and coordinates the research project ‘Pro.Re.Ba.’ (Proportionating rules on bank crisis prevention and management to the case of retail banks), which has received funding from the Italian Ministry of University. He has previously taught corporate law at the University of Venice ‘Ca’ Foscari’, at the University of Florence and at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.
rtered Institute of Arbitrators (London). He further holds a post-graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. Allan is also a scholar from the Hague Academy of International Law.
rofessor Ignacio Tirado was appointed Secretary-General by the Governing Council at its 97th session, and officially took office on 27 August 2018. A national of Spain, Professor Tirado (Commercial, Corporate and Insolvency Law, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain) holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Autónoma de Madrid and an LLM from the University of London. Professor Tirado has been a Senior Legal Consultant at the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency and Financial Sector Practice for more than nine years, having also consulted for the IMF on insolvency related matters as well as for the Asian Development Bank on commercial legal reform.
A Swedish national, Ms Lena Peters grew up in Italy where she attended an English school. In 1978 she took her Juris Kandidatexamen at Stockholm University followed by a Master of Laws from King’s College, London (1979). Since 1985 she has been with UNIDROIT, first as Research Officer, lastly as Principal Legal Officer, her main duties being Secretary to the Working Group for the Preparation of Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Secretary to the Study Group on Franchising, Secretary to the Committee of Governmental Experts on Franchising.She also collaborated on the project for the preparation of the ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. She is currently Managing Editor of the Uniform Law Review and responsible for publications at UNIDROIT.
Marina Schneider is Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary at UNIDROIT. She studied law at the University of Strasbourg (France) and Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. She joined the UNIDROIT in 1987 and was involved in the elaboration and French versions of most UNIDROIT instruments since. She is in charge of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and of the UNESCO-UNIDROIT Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects. She is the author of the Explanatory Report of the 1995 Convention and many articles on the Convention and other international instruments in the field. Ms Schneider is also responsible for the project on private collections and for the UNIDROIT Convention Academic Project (UCAP). She is member of the Board of the International Society for Research on Art and Cultural Heritage Law (ISCHAL).
Professor of Commercial Law, Carlos III University of Madrid. Currently, Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome, 2021-2022. Chair of Excellence 2017-2018 at University of Oxford (Uc3m- Santander Program), affiliated to Harris Manchester College. Previously Distinguished Visiting Professor and fellow of a number of Academic Institutions. Arbitrator of Madrid Court of Arbitration. Member of ELI (European Law Institute) Council and Executive Committee. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on Liability and New Technologies and member of the Expert Group of the European Observatory of Platform Economy; the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; the expert group of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform for Online Dispute Resolution – UNCITRAL and Hong Kong Department of Justice. Expert of the UNIDROIT Study Group on the MAC Protocol of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests. Delegate of Spain to UNIDROIT for the adoption of the Protocol, delegate of Spain in Working Group VI of UNCITRAL on secured transactions and in Working Group IV on Electronic Commerce. Member of UNIDROIT Working Groups on Enforcement and Warehouse Receipts.
William Brydie-Watson is an Australian lawyer who specialises in secured transactions law and private international law. Before joining UNIDROIT, William was a government lawyer in the Private International Law and International Arbitration section of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, where he worked primarily on treaty negotiation and the implementation of private international law treaties in Australia. At UNIDROIT, he is primarily responsible for the implementation of the Mining, Agriculture and Construction (MAC Protocol) to the 2001 Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the development of a Model Law on Factoring. William also serves as UNIDROIT’s liaison with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and as manager of the Institute’s Scholarship and Internship Programme. Admitted to practice in New South Wales and the High Court of Australia, he has a Bachelor of Arts (honours), a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from the Australian National University. William also lectures on International Secured Transactions Law at the Eotvos Lorand Faculty of Law in Budapest.