Conference programme

The rapid emergence of a multipolar world and surging geopolitical conflict are challenging established international laws, norms, and principles; entrenching global impunity; and raising existential questions about the future of international law and multilateral institution in world affairs. As 19th century-style great power competition makes a comeback, and the United States retreats from historic commitments to alliances and multilateralism, tensions escalate in Europe, the Middle East, and the Indo-Pacific. Meanwhile, as frustration grows globally with perceived double standards and hypocrisy in foreign policy decisions, some actors engage in “whataboutism” tactics and weaponize such debates for geopolitical and ideological purposes. In combination, such trends threaten to undermine the validity and universality of established laws, norms, and principles that have anchored the global order and guided multilateral cooperation for decades. Against this background, our expert panel will discuss what the future might yield for international law, international institutions, and multilateral cooperation.

This session will explore how we can use artificial intelligence in our practice to become better lawyers, as well as how this technology is reshaping the profession.

Like many jurisdictions around the world, shareholder activism in Canada has been on a rapid rise over the last decade.

This session will focus on the latest trends in Canadian activism, legal features that make the Canadian activism landscape unique, and on the similarities and differences – in rules, practices, tactics and trends – between activism in Canada compared to the rest of the world.
  
Panellists will discuss topics including:
• the Canadian legal framework that enables robust shareholder activism;
• tactics of Canadian activists;
• the increasing divide on ESG and DEI, and its impact on shareholder activism in Canada and elsewhere; 
• recent trends in shareholder activism from around the world.

The modern era of smart phones and social media has coincided with a coarsening of discourse, political polarization, and campus radicalization. Social isolation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic and continued work-from-home practices have eroded the bonds between people from diverse backgrounds that further contribute to these trends. The legal profession is not immune from these trends, with charges of “lawfare” and “existential threat” to the rule of law from across the political spectrum. On the other hand, the profession also has the potential to help fix what is broken, given opportunities for international dialogue, reconciliation, fairness, and objectivity inherent in legal practice. Join our panel who will offer their views regarding how the current environment is fuelling societal conflict, what steps have and can be taken to ameliorate the situation, and how lawyers and regulation can help (and hurt) those efforts.

With the proliferation of international conflicts waged through economic – in addition to conventional – means, sanctions has emerged as an area of legal practice which has changed frequently in recent years and continues to do so. Please join our panel of eminent speakers with diverse interests in the field as they canvass the role of sanctions as non-judicial means of international law enforcement, as well as issues of concern, including the implications of sanctions on access to justice, access to legal representation, and the role of lawyers, business, and the administration of justice during times of conflict.  Panellists will speak on their experience and observations, then engage in a discussion amongst themselves, and the floor will then be open for Q&A.