An open meeting of the Agricultural Law Section held to discuss matters of interest and future activities.

An open meeting of the Indigenous Peoples Committee held to discuss matters of interest and future activities.

Collaboration has been much discussed in the construction industry but has often been elusive. However, to meet the needs of both large-scale and complex infrastructure contracts, often involving cutting-edge processes and technologies, and the plethora of other construction and engineering projects which require to be delivered, there is an increase in popularity of non-traditional forms of contracting – framework agreements, multi-party contracts and alliancing contracting. These are not yet the go-to procurement or delivery routes but there is a clear direction of travel towards more collaborative forms of contracting. This session will explore whether we are entering a new era of collaborative working in the infrastructure, construction and engineering sector and the models being developed to support this.

The session will explore the challenges faced by farmers, food businesses, consumers, and environmental institutions and entities when dealing with the global tensions that concern the production and supply of food commodities and products, in relation with farming costs and financing. The panellists will discuss about the strategic and legal solutions to be adopted in order to prevent present and future stress conditions from happening throughout the healthy and less-healthy areas of the world.

"The system of institutionalized pro bono reflects what is best about the legal profession: private sector lawyers marshalling their resources to advance the interests of the poor and underserved. Yet the relationship between pro bono and the public good is more subtle and complex." (Scott L. Cummings, The Politics of Pro Bono, UCLA School of Law Public Law & Legal Theory Research Paper Series Paper No, 04-16, 2004, p.99)

Moral neutrality, business grounds and competing demands from liberal public interest groups and conservative organisations, can make it difficult to pursue justice-seeking pro bono efforts on a number of fronts. For example, the trans rights movement for extending basic legal rights and protections for a marginalized community has met with deep resistance in some corners and another example involves immigration rights. Pro bono efforts in the US during the Trump administration (and in some instances continuing through today) were at times frustrated with respect to the resettlement of Central American asylum seekers and refugees (in many instances involving children) as some law firms avoid taking “political” stances on these issues within their pro bono programs. The Afghan and Ukrainian crises are bringing similar concerns to the fore in Europe. Within large corporate law firms, which are the dominant providers of pro bono legal services, is it still legitimate to demand of pro bono lawyers to be morally neutral and stay clear of public interest lawyering which uses the law as a vehicle to combat social injustice?

Business development prowess is not a skill that lawyers are born possessing. How do successful rainmakers become who they are? Is business development a skill that can be taught? The first part of this program will feature panellists from some of the world’s leading law firms as they discuss how their firms developed state-of-the-art training programs using a combination of internal resources, external consultants and mentoring. The second part of the session will introduce some of the world’s leading rainmakers, who will share some of the secrets to how they were able to build and maintain robust practices.

Speakers for part one will include those involved (lawyers and/or C-suite executives) who create and manage these educational programs. Part two will consist of rainmakers from various law firms. 

Real estate industry representatives and lawyers from various jurisdictions will discuss interesting topics, including:

• Barriers and challenges that women face in the commercial real estate market career
• Mentoring and networking development are key issues for success?
• Positive impacts on having a gender balanced environment in the real estate transactions and market
• C-level role models and how to follow in their footsteps
• Post-covid homeschooling and homeworking period
• Gains in the hybrid workplace – redesigning commercial spaces and gender balance positive effects

The panel will seek to address contracting, transacting and other challenges of outsourcing within emerging sectors, like Fintech, against the background of regulatory requirements such as financial services regulation, delivery chain requirements, CSR, cybersecurity, and related issues. An example would be the revised Payment Service Providers Directive (PSD2) which introduced massive change to the payments sector.

By their nature, international arbitrations involve lawyers, clients and others from multiple jurisdictions where ethical and the way in which lawyers practice can vary widely. This panel considers the impact of these differences from the perspective of both counsel and arbitrators in seeking to acknowledge how these differences can be highlighted to more efficiently resolve disputes.

The unprovoked Russian invasion of Ukraine has had tremendous impacts on energy and food supply. Impacts of sanctions and Russian attempts to influence Europe by reducing hydrocarbon supply has resulted in an energy crisis which has dominated the recent public discussion. Less attention has been given to the impacts of the invasion on minerals supply from Ukraine, Russia and the minerals supply globally. The session will focus on how the war impacts the future possibilities of developing mineral resources in Ukraine, Russia’s ability to trade and develop mineral resources and global supply more widely.

Cryptocurrencies, or more accurately the blockchains on which they reside, are increasingly being touted as the catalyst for Web3 and a nascent financial revolution of decentralised opportunities beyond the current mainstream banking and financial systems. However, even in 2022 the crypto sector is still in its relative infancy, and at least for now is largely unregulated. This brings with it a great deal of uncertainty and risk. However, is crypto really manifesting problems we are not already familiar with? 
As new blockchain companies spring up, familiar battles for ownership and control will be waged, and issues around investments and fundraises will be scrutinised. Smart contracts may sit on the blockchain and be designed to work autonomously, but they first need to be written, and nobody will be prescient of all future eventualities. Fraud and theft also continue to be a concern, but in a decade which is already seeing exponential growth in phishing attempts, scam email, and system hacks, is crypto not simply the latest fertile arena? 
Here though the blockchain itself may be able to lend us a hand, with its decentralised, public ledgers recording all transactions undertaken in crypto, be they your purchase of a bitcoin nest egg destined for cold storage, or a ransom paid in Ethereum to unlock your IT system files following an attack. All can be seen and that means they can be tracked. Just how far will the initial built in anonymity of blockchain addresses go too, as more crypto exchanges and projects are being encouraged to undertake KYC? Will this help rehabilitate crypto’s image, and will it act to push the less desirables to the margins of crypto - just how easy might it be to track down and to prevent such persons enjoying their ill-gotten gains?
 

HumanRightsSpace tourism has become a hot topic with SpaceX, Virgin Galactic and Blue Origin making available space travel to anyone – at least to those who can afford the ticket price. This session will explore the legal challenges coming with this development and will focus on three aspects:

Insurance and liability – these are essential issues for anyone going on a space tour. One of the questions is about the status of space tourists. Are they considered “astronauts”? Or should they have different status yet to be determined? Travel insurers have launched insurance propositions for space tourists. What are the main considerations for such insurances?

Intellectual property – If space tourists were to conduct research and experiments leading to the development of new products, technologies etc. intellectual property rights may become an issue. Providing protection for intellectual property rights arising out of space activities will be essential in the further development of space travel and exploration. What are possible approaches to protect Intellectual Property Rights in space activities?

Human Rights and Code of Ethics – The UN World Tourism Organization developed a Global Code of Ethics for Tourism. This is a set of principles designed to guide key-players in tourism development to work towards minimizing potentially negative impact on the environment, cultural heritage and societies. Should there be a Code of Ethics for space tourism? What are the potential negative effects of space tourism requiring such a Code?

HumanRightsRuleOfLawThe international ecosystem of courts and legal protections that preserves and promotes rule of law, human rights and democracy seem to be in peril. Governments increasingly are straying from their international commitments with regard to refugee protection, freedom of expression, the right to protest and many other areas of law fundamental to peace and justice. What is to be done?

It’s the day you dread as General Counsel of a PLC. Your compliance officer in an overseas office rings you to tell you she thinks some employees have been paying bribes. What should you do? How do you manage an investigation with issues in several countries? Things couldn’t get worse, when you get a call from a journalist asking questions. And then, the overseas office is raided by law enforcement. The scenario will unfold through an interactive multi-media session and you, the audience, will be the board – it’s up to you to decide what to do at each stage. You will be guided by a panel of expert investigations lawyers who can provide advice and insight from their experience across jurisdictions, but the ultimate decision-making will rest with you!