As the celebration of its 100th anniversary nears, UNIDROIT is committing itself to contributing towards reaching Agenda 2030’s goals for sustainable development.
At present, UNIDROIT counts 65 Member States, but that tally does not reflect the fact that, “together, UNIDROIT’s 65 Member States represent three-quarters of world population and 90 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product of our planet”, underlines Secretary-General Ignacio Tirado. While each of UNIDROIT’s current Member States from Africa enjoys great economic, demographic and historical importance, they are only four in number: Egypt, Nigeria, South Africa, and Tunisia.
With this very point, Secretary-General Tirado opened the second edition of the International Programme for Law and Development, which just finished its three-week in-person module at the seat of UNIDROIT in Rome, hosting 22 jurists from 17 African countries. The participants were judges, state lawyers, and legislative drafters, hailing from diverse regions and backgrounds across the African continent. What emerged from their observations was the great potential of UNIDROIT’s instruments.
According to Diana Nkatha Kanyuithia, a lawyer with Kenya’s Ministry of Agriculture and Farming, “growth of opportunities and contracts in the agricultural sector represent a challenge” that must be faced with the necessary expertise. She added, “These three weeks together have been a pan-African dialogue. Participants exchanged views and experiences on situations and problems from their own countries.”
Salid Said Salim, Director of Somalia’s Institute for Development and Analysis of Research and a legal consultant for his Government on projects financed by the World Bank, declared, “There are new opportunities, including regarding infrastructure projects, that our country cannot miss, especially after a civil conflict”. Additionally, Trudie Nichols, a South African lawyer, highlighted the potential of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts: “Training projects like this are very important – they provide jurists with new instruments in support of choices that could bring benefits to their countries”.
The idea, according to UNIDROIT, is that the unification of private (and especially commercial) law at the international level, as a way to harmonise and modernise countries’ legislation, can play a role in development. “The 100th anniversary of Institute’s foundation, in 2026, will be a stride towards Agenda 2030”, continued Secretary-General Tirado. “As an international community, we will be called upon to verify what has been done and what still has to be done – for instance, in terms of access to credit and opportunities for small and medium-sized businesses that have social value, starting from the field of agriculture is a priority for UNIDROIT”.
The courses were also enriched by the additional participation of jurists connecting remotely from Cameroon, Tanzania, Kenya and Algeria – in the words of Marco Nicoli, Director of the IPLD, “a way to expand and multiply participation”. Indeed, Nicoli concluded at the closing ceremony of the course: “Certainly, this is only the beginning of the journey”.
Professor Iacopo Donati is the UNIDROIT/Bank of Italy Chair Holder and is mainly responsible for assisting in the Bank Insolvency project. He is Professor of Corporate and Insolvency Law at the University of Siena, and coordinates the research project ‘Pro.Re.Ba.’ (Proportionating rules on bank crisis prevention and management to the case of retail banks), which has received funding from the Italian Ministry of University. He has previously taught corporate law at the University of Venice ‘Ca’ Foscari’, at the University of Florence and at the University of Rome ‘Tor Vergata’.
rtered Institute of Arbitrators (London). He further holds a post-graduate diploma in law from the Kenya School of Law. Allan is also a scholar from the Hague Academy of International Law.
rofessor Ignacio Tirado was appointed Secretary-General by the Governing Council at its 97th session, and officially took office on 27 August 2018. A national of Spain, Professor Tirado (Commercial, Corporate and Insolvency Law, Universidad Autónoma of Madrid, Spain) holds a PhD from the Universities of Bologna and Autónoma de Madrid and an LLM from the University of London. Professor Tirado has been a Senior Legal Consultant at the World Bank’s Legal Vice-Presidency and Financial Sector Practice for more than nine years, having also consulted for the IMF on insolvency related matters as well as for the Asian Development Bank on commercial legal reform.
A Swedish national, Ms Lena Peters grew up in Italy where she attended an English school. In 1978 she took her Juris Kandidatexamen at Stockholm University followed by a Master of Laws from King’s College, London (1979). Since 1985 she has been with UNIDROIT, first as Research Officer, lastly as Principal Legal Officer, her main duties being Secretary to the Working Group for the Preparation of Principles of International Commercial Contracts, Secretary to the Study Group on Franchising, Secretary to the Committee of Governmental Experts on Franchising.She also collaborated on the project for the preparation of the ELI-Unidroit Model European Rules of Civil Procedure. She is currently Managing Editor of the Uniform Law Review and responsible for publications at UNIDROIT.
Marina Schneider is Principal Legal Officer and Treaty Depositary at UNIDROIT. She studied law at the University of Strasbourg (France) and Paris I – Panthéon Sorbonne. She joined the UNIDROIT in 1987 and was involved in the elaboration and French versions of most UNIDROIT instruments since. She is in charge of the 1995 UNIDROIT Convention on Stolen or Illegally Exported Cultural Objects and of the UNESCO-UNIDROIT Model Provisions on State Ownership of Undiscovered Cultural Objects. She is the author of the Explanatory Report of the 1995 Convention and many articles on the Convention and other international instruments in the field. Ms Schneider is also responsible for the project on private collections and for the UNIDROIT Convention Academic Project (UCAP). She is member of the Board of the International Society for Research on Art and Cultural Heritage Law (ISCHAL).
Professor of Commercial Law, Carlos III University of Madrid. Currently, Sir Roy Goode Scholar at UNIDROIT, Rome, 2021-2022. Chair of Excellence 2017-2018 at University of Oxford (Uc3m- Santander Program), affiliated to Harris Manchester College. Previously Distinguished Visiting Professor and fellow of a number of Academic Institutions. Arbitrator of Madrid Court of Arbitration. Member of ELI (European Law Institute) Council and Executive Committee. Member of the Expert Group of the European Commission on Liability and New Technologies and member of the Expert Group of the European Observatory of Platform Economy; the International Academy of Commercial and Consumer Law; the expert group of the Inclusive Global Legal Innovation Platform for Online Dispute Resolution – UNCITRAL and Hong Kong Department of Justice. Expert of the UNIDROIT Study Group on the MAC Protocol of the Cape Town Convention on International Interests. Delegate of Spain to UNIDROIT for the adoption of the Protocol, delegate of Spain in Working Group VI of UNCITRAL on secured transactions and in Working Group IV on Electronic Commerce. Member of UNIDROIT Working Groups on Enforcement and Warehouse Receipts.
William Brydie-Watson is an Australian lawyer who specialises in secured transactions law and private international law. Before joining UNIDROIT, William was a government lawyer in the Private International Law and International Arbitration section of the Australian Attorney-General’s Department, where he worked primarily on treaty negotiation and the implementation of private international law treaties in Australia. At UNIDROIT, he is primarily responsible for the implementation of the Mining, Agriculture and Construction (MAC Protocol) to the 2001 Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment and the development of a Model Law on Factoring. William also serves as UNIDROIT’s liaison with the Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum and as manager of the Institute’s Scholarship and Internship Programme. Admitted to practice in New South Wales and the High Court of Australia, he has a Bachelor of Arts (honours), a Bachelor of Laws and a Master of Laws from the Australian National University. William also lectures on International Secured Transactions Law at the Eotvos Lorand Faculty of Law in Budapest.