This session will be a comparative study in recent legal developments and advancement in the rights of transgendered people across the Americas.

HumanRightsResearch in human beings has evolved over time. The unprecedented scientific advances brought by the pandemic, have magnified the implications of such research. As a consequence legal, regulatory and ethical challenges have imploded.  Values such as dignity, bodily integrity, autonomy, and privacy are dramatically at stake. These ethical concerns have triggered complex legal issues, especially as regards human safety, informed consent, confidentiality and data privacy.

Cross-border investigations are clearly on the rise. How do companies cope with the increased demand to investigate bribery allegations and what are the main hurdles they are confronted with? Are the companies incentivised by local legislation to self-report identified misbehaviour to the prosecuting authorities? In which instances should an investigation be conducted internally by the company and what are the reasons to involve an external counsel? What kind of new obligations will be put on companies in the light of the new whistleblowing legislation? What should be taken into consideration to protect the internal investigations results before a decision has been taken on what to do with the results of the investigation? Are there any "golden rules" on how to conduct corporate investigations? Many questions to be discussed by investigation lawyers and companies.

SustainabilityFocusThe role of corporations in being part of both the problem and the solution of climate change and sustainability has never been more pronounced. Pressure from activist investors and financial institutions are holding companies increasingly accountable for their environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance. Governments, activists, and customers are focused on corporate contributions to climate change and the adequacy of efforts to address emissions through various net-zero commitments. This is creating legal issues for boards, corporate leadership and governance, and the courts as these issues move from advocacy and policy to regulations, liability, and litigation. This showcase panel will focus on the growing intersection between the climate change and ESG movements and the role of the lawyer in advising clients to prepare for and mitigate legal risks through corporate governance in the wake of growing regulatory and stakeholder pressures, and preparing to address them when issues translate to litigation and liability.

SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS sessions marked as such are part of the IBA Annual Conference 2022 sustainability focus on Tuesday and Thursday, grouping sessions discussing different aspects of ESG and sustainability across the different legal fields.

An open meeting of the International Franchising Committee held to discuss matters of interest and future activities.

Is market power at the root of wealth inequality? Can and should antitrust make an active contribution to combatting this inequality? Is it a suitable tool for redistributing wealth? If so, how can it best be used do so? Is concern about inequality a basis for aggressive antitrust enforcement in labor markets designed to raise wages, as some have argued? Is there a risk that this weakens its ability to play its key role of delivering low prices and high quality to consumers? What have been the results when this has been tried? Are competitive markets the surest path to more equality? Are there lessons here from the debate about antitrust’s potential contribution to climate change goals? The panel will debate the latest thinking on this issue, and review examples from jurisdictions that are in the vanguard of tackling inequality through antitrust.
 

Influenced by the recommendations of the IMF, the World Bank and other similar institutions, lawmakers are progressively introducing various types of restructuring schemes aimed at assisting distressed businesses to restructure their assets and liabilities in order to restore long-term economic viability and avoid bankruptcy. Concepts such as “best-of-creditors’ interest test” or “absolute/relative priority rule” are paramount to define each legal scheme and assess whether or not creditors’ expected recovery ratios should be enhanced following the introduction of the schemes, the scope of protection offered to secured or preferred creditors, the chances of hold-out creditors blocking the restructuring, etc.  The session intends to provide a roadmap to lawyers advising banks and other professional creditors on the intricacies of some model restructuring schemes.

The United Nations Convention on International Settlement Agreements Resulting from Mediation (New York, 2018) (the "Singapore Convention on Mediation") was adopted on 20 December 2018 and was open for signature on 7 August 2019. 55 states have signed the Convention with 9 states having ratified. The Convention has been described as the “Missing Third Piece in the International Dispute Resolution Enforcement Framework”. This session will explore the need for and style of ethical guidelines or standards for mediation under this regime and how they will operate. The Mediation Committee is working on a project to develop international standards and will share progress with the audience.  

As the use of social media as a means of communication on the securities markets is increasing, it continues to impose challenges for market participants and regulators who must abide by and enforce rules that were written with print media in mind. Simultaneously, social media is less costly, instantaneous and easily accessed, providing almost infinite possibilities for marketing, information sharing and investor relations. 
  
This session discusses how financial regulation and the regulation of securities offerings has evolved in the face of the growing use of social media by issuers, investors, broker-dealers and intermediaries, and what more can market participants and regulators do to efficiently but fairly harness the power of social media.
 

HumanRightsThe Covid-19 pandemic has illustrated ethical challenges in relation to medicines (including vaccines and diagnostic testing) and other therapeutic goods being made available to the world’s population (including the elderly, children and indigenous populations) and the dichotomy between pharmaceutical companies making money in order to fund future innovation versus the poor being able to access live saving therapeutic goods. In addition, wealthy countries vs poorer nations. This session will discuss the ethical, legal and human rights issues and some of the lessons learnt from the Covid-19 pandemic.

This session will also discuss the disparities regarding the care of children – including parental rights regarding anti-vaccination during Covid-19 and how governments and the law in various countries have either supported or interfered with those rights.

There is pressure to limit the existence and recognition of holding companies only to the extent that underlying substance and function is housed within the relevant jurisdiction. International tax law developments of the recent past and of the foreseeable future provide broad legal rules based on the OECD/G20 and the EU’s efforts to crack down on companies with slim infrastructure in low-tax jurisdictions or in countries with tax benefits for pure holding companies (especially IP-holding companies). This must be seen together with withholding taxes, non-deductibility rules for payments made to companies in low-tax jurisdictions, and the principal purpose test as well as limitation on benefits clauses. This panel will provide an overview of how international groups are responding to these developments.

Latin America continues to be a large, growing and dynamic market for deals, and this panel of leading dealmakers will teach you what you need to know at the cutting edge.  FinTech, Venture Capital Unicorns, growth of Multi-latin companies and Private Equity Funds focusing on the region as if it was a single market with varying regions have pushed collaboration, cross border and multijurisdictional M&A transactions to a new level within the region. The session will involve a review of trends, experiences and opportunities resulting from the above, among active participants in the regional M&A ecosystem.    

DiversityInclusionRuleOfLawThis session seeks to explore issues of gender parity in the legal profession following the launch of the ground breaking IBA & LexisNexis Rule of Law Foundation nine year global gender project - ‘50:50 by 2030’ - in 2021. 

Discussion will centre on the results of the study in England and Wales, Spain and Uganda, (in addition to seeing where we are in other jurisdictions underway), exploring the early findings. The discussion will delve into the root causes of gender inequality at senior levels of the legal profession, (looking at challenges such as child care, work life balance, menopause support, culture) and consider whether specific diversity initiatives yield meaningful impact. More broadly it will explore the situation of women lawyers post pandemic and in the context of wider sustainability concerns. It will consider whether there can be any real gender parity at the most senior levels in sectors where billing time and time spent at work may equate to longer term success.

Leisure and intellectual property in the magic city!

The panel will explore a multitude of IP issues, strategies and challenges as they relate to recreational and non-recreational Cannabis and two areas Miami is famous for: tattoos and NFTs, including Digital Art and Collectibles. And to top it off, the panel will link IP issues in Cannabis and tattoos to the evolving reality of the metaverse. The session will confirm once again that IP is everywhere. 

SustainabilityFocusWhere there is an apparent failure of governments, corporates and other "entrusted" institutions to act in the best interests of the community as a whole, the law and in particular class actions emerge to seek to hold those responsible to account. This session will take the temperature of the current state of global climate change class actions and try and look over the horizon at the next wave of climate change litigation.

SUSTAINABILITY FOCUS sessions marked as such are part of the IBA Annual Conference 2022 sustainability focus on Tuesday and Thursday, grouping sessions discussing different aspects of ESG and sustainability across the different legal fields.

HumanRightsThe International Bar Association (IBA), UC Berkeley Human Rights Center (Berkeley HRC), and Oxford Programme on International Peace and Security (Oxford IPS) are working collaboratively to address the need for greater preservation of and
access to social media evidence to strengthen legal accountability for human rights violations and atrocity crimes. Social media platforms have become the unintended archives of information with historical and evidentiary value, even though
social media companies do not necessarily have the incentives or infrastructure to properly and indefinitely identify and preserve this content. Indeed, the rate at which potentially relevant and probative content is removed is rapidly increasing as political and
public pressure to remove harmful content builds. In this session, project participants will report on their research into potential mechanisms for strengthening the use of such digital content in accountability processes, and the most recent activities that are underway to strengthen this work. Building on the participants' ongoing efforts to improve investigations and documentation of atrocity crimes, this session will open a conversation with session participants to:

• clarify the relevance and probative value of user-generated content to international legal proceedings;
• clarify the requirements for and purposes of sharing relevant user-generated content with international and regional legal authorities; and
• explore potential next steps for advancing the use of online content in international accountability processes.

In April 2021 the EU Commission published a proposal for the first horizontal regulation on artificial intelligence: the EU artificial intelligence act. The AI act will apply to the AI used or placed on the EU market, irrespective of whether the providers are based within or outside the EU. An antitrust/GDPR-style sanctioning regime is proposed, with fines up to Euro 30M or 6% of global annual turnover. Obligations and requirements are addressed not only to providers of AI systems but also to stakeholders that use those systems or that are part of the value chain (manufacturers, importers, distributors). During the session, a high overview of the main blocks of the proposal will be provided as introduction for a live discussion.

HumanRightsThe last decade has seen an explosion of content on social and traditional media designed to sow misinformation and social division. Whether tied to Covid, elections, climate change, nationalism, or other hot button issues, the content - some of it deliberately generated by rival states for geopolitical advantage - is fuelling such divorced realities that it threatens international stability. In response, many countries are considering or have implemented laws and regulations to control "misinformation" online. But is it possible for the law to distinguish between weaponized misinformation and the organic dialogue necessary for the democratic process? Can the law provide a response without infringing on fundamental human rights? Or do these cures pose greater risks than the disease?

HumanRightsWhen home country laws permit irresponsible ESG practices, international norms like the United Nations Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights can help guide companies’ in the right direction. Many multinational companies commit to high standards but do not have proper controls and people in place to achieve them. When one of the world’s largest mining companies recently destroyed ancient archaeological sites in Australia, it arguably did not break any Australian laws. Nevertheless, its Board concluded that it may have averted the disaster had the company properly adhered to the international standards that it had internally adopted. This panel will explore the risks of strictly limiting compliance to black law legal frameworks and discuss practical methods of using ESG norms and standards to promote sustainable and responsible business practices.

An open meeting of the Business Human Rights Committee held to discuss matters of interest and future activities.