On Friday 18th and Monday 21st of October respectively, two conferences were held to honour the memory of late UNIDROIT President Professor Alberto Mazzoni. The first conference, entitled “Dialoghi con Alberto Mazzoni” was organised by the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart of Milan and focused on remembering him as an academic through the interpretation of his publications by faculty members of the Catholic University as well as from other Universities. The conference was opened by Professor Elena Becalli, Dean of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Professor Antonella Occhino, Head of the Faculty of Economics, and Professor Alessandro D’Adda, Director of the Law Department. The panels addressed the themes of business law (chaired by Professor Mario Libertini, of Sapienza University of Rome), corporate law (chaired by Prof. Carlo Angelici, of Sapienza University of Rome), complex corporate structures (chaired by Professor Piergaetano Marchetti, Bocconi University), and corporate crisis and insolvency ( chaired by Professor Vincenzo Di Cataldo, University of Catania). UNIDROIT Secretary-General Ignacio Tirado provided closing remarks.
The second conference, held at the seat of UNIDROIT in Rome and sponsored by Assonime, was entitled “An Italian jurist shaping transnational law”, and painted a picture of the late President in his role as both a negotiator and as President of the Institute over three sessions. The first session was on international contracts and arbitration with Mr Stefano Azzali (Director General – Chamber of Arbitration of Milan), Mr Yves Derains (Founding partner – Derains & Gharavi), and Mr José Angelo Estrella Faria (Principal Legal Officer and Head of the Legislative Branch of the International Trade Law Division, United Nations Office of Legal Affairs) and chaired by Deputy Secretary-General Anna Veneziano. The second session addressed cross-border insolvency with Professor Christopher Paulus (Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin), Professor Janis Sarra (Emeritus, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia), and Professor Ronald Davis (Emeritus, Peter A. Allard School of Law, University of British Columbia), chaired by Secretary-General Ignacio Tirado. The final panel was chaired by UNIDROIT Governing Council member Professor Stefania Bariatti of the University of Milan and was on financial markets and security interests, featuring Ms Margherita Bianchini (Deputy Director General and Area Head – Company Law, ASSONIME), Ms Monica Marcucci (Legal Counsel, Italian Institute for the Supervision of Insurance – IVASS), and Professor Riz Mokal (South Square Chambers) .
The event featured not only words of welcome by UNIDROIT President Maria Chiara Malaguti and Secretary-General Ignacio Tirado, but was honoured by the opening words of Minister Pasquale Velotti, who represented the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in an expression of the Institutional recognition of President Mazzoni’s work for the Italian Government.
Both events (programmes below) were attended by Professor Alberto Mazzoni’s family, and featured the heartfelt contributions of eminent practitioners and scholars who not only reflected on his legacy, but also on what would have been his indications for the future.
10a bozza 18.10.24 DIALOGHI CON ALBERTO MAZZONI loca-1 Programme 21 October 2024-1
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.