Conference programme

A session presented by the India Working Group of the Asia Pacific Regional Forum.

Given the number of recent trade deals that India has entered into, its continuing attraction as an investment destination, and India Inc.’s interest in investments overseas, India is very well poised as a strategic player in today’s global business. Given India’s demography, talent pool and geostrategic position, it attracts investments in manufacturing, service and infrastructure sectors as well as upcoming technology-based and sensitive sectors such as data centres, defence, nuclear and space.

In the same breath, Indian corporates are looking to expand their horizons overseas with both financial and strategic investments. This session will seek to address both typical and complex questions on India’s investment opportunities and regulatory landscape, industrial and tax policies and how best to navigate them on behalf of both Indian and global financial and strategic investors.

The panel will focus on the interaction between the enforcement of IP rights and competition law and particularly how the legitimate enforcement of exclusive rights can be reconciled with the prohibition of abuse of dominant position or economic dependency. While the uneasy coexistence between exclusive rights and competition law has kept regulators and courts busy for many years, it has come to the forefront again following the decision of the European Commission to fine the pharmaceutical company Teva not less than EUR 462.6m for abusing its dominant position to delay competition by playing a 'divisional game.' The panel will address questions about abuses of IP protection systems creating actionable competition abuses.

This session will explore how innovation can be balanced with client trust, confidentiality, and professional responsibility. It'll look too at flexible, AI-enhanced roles, on-demand talent (including contract lawyers, project-based specialists, etc) and the implications for client service, cost efficiency etc. How can leaders navigate with agility and resilience when navigating rapid change from regulatory shifts, geopolitical issues, and client demand?

This session will examine how activist investors increasingly shape shareholder litigation and corporate governance. Panellists will explore the strategies activists use to influence legal action, challenge management decisions and drive governance reforms. The discussion will also address key ethical and regulatory considerations – such as transparency, alignment of shareholder interests and litigation financing – along with the resulting market and corporate impacts. Attendees will gain practical insight into the evolving role of activism in high-stakes litigation and its implications for global legal practice.

A discussion regarding the state of international law, norms and institutions under the stress of a world shifting towards multi-polarity and great power rivalry.

Inspired by the words of former Supreme Court of Canada Justice Rosalie Abella at the opening of the IBA Annual Conference in Toronto, this session will consider how lawyers and the law can be used as tools of authoritarianism and how justice must inform and infuse the rule of law.

A look at the weaponisation of the legal process against perceived political opponents in various jurisdictions and the implications for the rise of populism and the rule of law.