We are pleased to announce the winners of the 2025 UNIDROIT Essay Competition themed “A Decade of the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming: Sustainable Agriculture and Food Security in a Changing World”. The Essay Competition is supported by the International Law Institute (ILI) and facilitated by the UNIDROIT Foundation.
- First Position: Andrew Umali – From Soft Law to Field Realities: Examining the Influence of the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Contract Farming Guide in Malawi’s Sugarcane Sector.
Andrew Gift Umali is a Malawian legal practitioner and law scholar. He is currently pursuing dual postgraduate qualifications, an MSc in European Studies (Comparative and European Law) at Sapienza University of Rome and a Master of Laws at Liverpool John Moores University. Admitted to practice law before the Courts of the Republic of Malawi in 2022, Andrew previously served as a Legal Associate at Messrs Blantyre Legal. Andrew is also part of the inaugural cohort of the Agenda 2063 in Power Spaces Traineeship, conducted by UNDP Ethiopia in collaboration with the African Union. His main research interests are in technology and market regulation, Intellectual Property and the role of harmonisation in fostering sustainable economic development. - Second Position: Muhammad Nur Fitriansyah – Digitization of Equitable Agricultural Contracts Through the Implementation of UNIDROIT Principles in Indonesia’s Farmer Ecosystem.
Muhammad Nur Fitriansyah is a third-year Biology student at Universitas Padjadjaran, Indonesia, with a strong academic foundation in biological sciences. Driven by a passion for sustainable development, he actively engages in leadership, research, and youth empowerment initiatives at both national and international levels. His experiences include serving in strategic partnership and external relations roles within the ASEAN Youth Organization, Maybank Ambassador, and Komunitas Satu Persen. Recognised for his achievements in scientific and policy-related competitions, he pursues his ambition of integrating biological innovation, policy design, and community collaboration to strengthen Indonesia’s food and agricultural resilience. - Third Position: Ayerango Patricia – A Decade of the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide on Contract Farming: Prospects for Equitable Agriculture and Sustainable livelihoods for Smallholder Farmers in Uganda’s Coffee Sector.
Ayerango Patricia holds a degree in Business Administration (BBA) with a concentration in Accounting and Finance from Makerere University Business School (MUBS) in Uganda. Drawing on her upbringing on a smallholder farm in Uganda, her work focuses on analysing how economic and commercial decisions affect sustainable development, particularly in agriculture. She leverages her financial management background to examine issues like farmer financial security and fair trading practices within supply chains. Her primary goal is to leverage robust economic analysis to drive sustainable and equitable agricultural policy, particularly for smallholder farmers in East Africa, with a view toward advanced studies in Development Finance. - Fourth Position: Samir Zime Yerima – Sens et portée du Guide juridique sur l’agriculture contractuelle dans un contexte de pluralisme juridique : le cas des pays d’Afrique subsaharienne.
Samir Zime Yerima is a Junior Lecturer at the Sorbonne Law School, where he teaches Public International Law and International Relations. He is currently a PhD candidate in Public Law. He holds multiple advanced degrees, including a Master’s degree in Fundamental Public Law, an LL.M. in International Law, a Master’s in African Legal Studies, and a Postgraduate University Diploma in Energy Law and International Arbitration. Throughout his academic journey, he has received several distinctions, including the Guy Carcassonne Prize. - Fifth Position: Berk Eker – Invisible Partners: Strengthening Gender Equality in Agricultural Contracting through the UNIDROIT/FAO/IFAD Legal Guide.
Berk Eker is an Associate Lecturer in Law at the University of Wollongong and a PhD candidate at the University of Sydney Law School. His doctoral research examines human rights due diligence and the regulation of ultra-processed foods, developing an international legal framework for corporate accountability in the global food system. His broader research spans human rights law, corporate accountability, biotechnology and intellectual property, and the governance of emerging technologies.
The winners of the Essay Competition will present their research at a webinar hosted by UNIDROIT on Monday, 17 November 2025, at 14.30 CET. Register now to attend the webinar here.
For additional information, please contact info@unidroitfoundation.org.
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.