Union Internationale des Avocats

Last updated
UIA
Formation8 July 1927 (1927-07-08)
Type International NGO
Headquarters Paris, France
FieldsLaw, Human Rights
Official language
French, English & Spanish (working languages) and Portuguese, Italian, German, Arabic & Mandarin (official languages)
President
Hervé Chemouli
Website www.uianet.org/en

The Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA) or International Association of Lawyers is an international non-governmental organisation, created in 1927, that brings together more than two million legal professionals from all over the world.

Contents

Historical context

At the end of the 19th century, most European lawyers worked within autonomous and independent bar associations, each with their own customs.

However, after World War I "," European lawyers gradually realized the importance of helping certain bar associations modernise and build international contacts [1]

In July 1925, lawyers from Belgium, France and Luxembourg initiated the "Union Internationale des Avocats" project, which came to fruition after two years of collaboration on July 8, 1927, in Charleroi, Belgium [2]

The President of the Paris Bar Association, Georges Guillaumin, [3] was nominated as the Association’s first president.

Once the UIA was formed, several bar associations sought its membership. [4] After joining the Association, each new bar contributed unique efforts towards the UIA's dual objectives: adapting older bars to the new economic and international climate, and working with the League of Nations [5] for the establishment of lasting peace. [6]

Objectives

Today, the UIA defends the legal profession and encourages international networking, cooperation and understanding among lawyers with due regard to their cultural and professional diversity [7]

Two objectives underlie the UIA's activities:

Missions

Today, the UIA is an association open to all lawyers from around the world, [9] general or specialized, and brings together several thousand members and 200 bar associations, federations, and associations from 110 countries.

Multilingual and multicultural, the UIA is the only major international lawyers organisation to have eight official languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, and Chinese) and to work in three working languages: French, English, and Spanish.

Moreover, the UIA has built more than 43 commissions composed of lawyers from jurisdictions spanning the globe. These lawyers practice in law firms, businesses, or public institutions. Each commission monitors the evolution occurring in a particular legal field (or practice) [10] and determines how these changes will affect or be affected by other legal fields. All UIA commissions collaborate to keep each other informed of their respective developments and findings.

The UIA's commissions and working groups are divided into two principal fields: Business Law and General Practice and Human Rights

Business law

The UIA commissions and working groups in business law focus on competition law, contracts, bankruptcy, corporate law, labour, intellectual property law, tax, banking, mergers and acquisitions, mediation, the international sale of goods, and foreign investments, among many other practice areas.

The UIA collaborates with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and notably presented a proposition for the definition of a "center of principal interests" (articles 2b) and 16-3 of the UNCITRAL law on international insolvency. [11]

Every year, the UIA organises numerous seminars on international subjects. [12] [13] The UIA's events allow participants to meet colleagues, establish professional contacts and to debate questions about current events and controversial legal topics.

For its annual congress, the UIA creates working sessions for its commissions. These commissions produce reports accessible to all UIA members and organise congressional joint-sessions.

Each year, one or more principal themes are established for the Congress, inciting national and international legal and economic experts to engage in fruitful debate.

Protection of lawyers and human rights

The UIA intervenes throughout the world in favour of lawyers who are imprisoned [14] or persecuted for practising their profession. [15]

Since 1971, the UIA has benefited from its special consultative status in the United Nations and the European Council. [16] Through the European Council, [17] the UIA produced a policy recommendation concerning money laundering [18] and the War on Terror. [19]

The UIA is represented in the three main offices of the United Nations (New York, Geneva, and Vienna), where the UIA organises a summit for international bar association presidents. [20] These summits permit bar association presidents to further the work initiated by the UN in diverse domains of international law. [21]

Additionally, the UIA sits at the heart of the Consultative Councils of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. [22] Finally, the UIA has followed the work of the preparatory commission of the International Criminal Court since its creation in 1998. The UIA also attends sessions of the Assembly of States Parties to the Statute of the Court. [23] The UIA is a member of the executive council of the International Criminal Bar. [24] [25]

Members

Presidency

The term of each UIA presidency is one year.

Past Presidents:

Annual congress

IIIrd UIA Congress in LUXEMBOURG in which Nobel Peace Prize Winner Henri La Fontaine took part (pictured in the first row). Congres de l'Union internationale des avocats, Luxembourg, 1931.jpg
IIIrd UIA Congress in LUXEMBOURG in which Nobel Peace Prize Winner Henri La Fontaine took part (pictured in the first row).

Since its creation, the UIA has organised annual congresses in locations all over the world for members and non-members to discuss legal topics in an international forum.

According to UIA Statutes, the organisation must convene a Congress at least once every two years. Between 1929 and 1938, UIA congresses were mainly annual. The 1939 Congress, which was scheduled to take place in Warsaw on the eve of the Second World War, did eventually not take place: [33]

The congressional process resumed in 1948, and a Congress was held annually until 1954 (except in 1952) :

From 1954 to 1989, a Congress was held every two years :

As of 1989, the Congress has once again become an annual event :

Resolutions and charters [50]

UIA publications

Juriste International magazine

Juriste International is the trilingual magazine (English, French, Spanish) of the UIA. Published four times a year, it has a circulation of 3000 copies.

It presents articles by authors - members or not members of the association - on national and international legal hot topics.

Editor-in-Chief: Barbara Gislason, Minnesota, United States.

UIA awards

UIA also rewards legal professionals for their scientific work, their professionalism, their involvement in the defence of the rule of law or for the innovative aspect of their professional practice.

Monique Raynaud-Contamine Award

The Monique Raynaud-Contamine Award has been awarded from 1999 to 2018 for the best written reports submitted at the association's annual congresses.

Carlo MASTELLONE, Italy : Sales-related issues not covered by the CISG: assignment, set-off, statute of limitation, etc., under Italian law

Stefano DINDO, Italy : How to negotiate a cross-border business deal

Jorge MARTI MORENO, Spain : Migration of companies within the World Trade Organization, European Union and worldwide

Peter TURNER, UK : Ethics in International Arbitration

James MOORE, USA : Economic globalization and its impact upon the legal profession Luis ZARRALUQUI, Spain : El arbitraje en Derecho de Familia en general y en España en particular – La problemática de los procesos en los procesos arbítrales

Howard H. SPIEGLER, USA : Restitution of nazi-looted art: view from the United States

Judith GIBSON, Australia: Detention after sentence

Carolina PINA, Spain : Copyright in the digital age: from dadaism to mash-up

Francis GERVAIS, Canada : Qui est le client ?

Francisco RAMOS ROMEU, Spain : El embargo internacional de créditos en la UE

Janice MULLIGAN, USA : How would you like your Pacemaker to be hacked? Healthcare cyber vulnerability: a risk management nightmare for the 21st century

Maria CRONIN, UK (Special Mention – Young Lawyer)

Ian DE FREITAS, UK : Towards an international regulatory approach for mass surveillance and profiling – Striking the balance between national security and privacy

Barbara BANDIERA, Italy (Special Mention)

Jacques Leroy Prize

From 2010 to 2017, Jacques Leroy Prize was awarded to a law student who, by his or her written submission, promoted the recognition of human rights in the business world.

Rule of Law Award

Since 2016, UIA, in partnership with LexisNexis, acknowledges and publicises individuals and/or organisations for their commitment and actions to the development and promotion of the Rule of Law.

LegalTech Inspiration Award

In 2021, UIA and LexisNexis launched the LegalTech Inspiration Award in order to encourage innovation in the legal field and reward the organizations or individuals that bring new ideas to the legal world which change lawyers’ outlook, practice or working methods.

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