On 13 December, as a Side Event to the 84th session of the UNIDROIT General Assembly, Member State and Non-Member State delegations were invited to attend an event that UNIDROIT co-hosted with the cooperation of the South African Embassy in Rome, to celebrate the 2024 South Africa Chairmanship of the UNIDROIT General Assembly.
The event was opened by Prof. Maria Chiara Malaguti (President of UNIDROIT), Her Excellency Ms Nosipho Nausca-Jean Jezile (Ambassador of South Africa to Italy and Chair of the UNIDROIT General Assembly 2023-2024), Minister Plenipotentiary Mr Marco Giungi of the Directorate General of Cooperation and Development, Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation, Her Excellency Ms Maria De Fatima Jardim (Ambassador of Angola to Italy and Chair of the Southern African Development Community), and Her Excellency Ms Fatimata Cheiffou (Ambassador of Niger to Italy, Chair of Africa Regional Group). This opening ceremony featured strong messages on the success of the initiatives that had been completed under South Africa’s Presidency of the General Assembly, as well as the growing interest and support that UNIDROIT was gaining in the African region. Initiatives such as the International Programme for Law and Development, and other awareness raising exercises on the implementation of legal instruments that are crucial to Africa’s development, were further discussed.
UNIDROIT Secretary-General Prof. Ignacio Tirado then took the floor to provide attendees with an overview on UNIDROIT’s instruments of access to credit and their interactions with other areas of work, and on how instrumental such interactions were to growth and sustainable economic development. A panel then followed on the Luxembourg Rail Protocol to the Cape Town Convention and its relevance for economic and social development in Africa, in the broader context of the Cape Town Convention treaty system and in light of on the imminent deposit by South Africa of the ratification to the Protocol. Moderated by Prof. Anna Veneziano, Ms Lunesterline Andriamahatahitry (Head of Administration and Finance Department, Intergovernmental Organisation for International Carriage by Rail (OTIF)) and Ms Mesela Nhlapo (Chief Executive Officer of the African Rail Industry Association), respectively provided guidance and illustrations of the benefits of adhering to the Protocol after its entry into force in March 2024, on the functioning of the Registry (for which OTIF serves as the Secretariat of the Supervisory Authority), and on its key role as a catalyst in the objectives in the Africa we Want agenda.
In the concluding Panel, moderated by Prof. Jan Neels (Professor of Private International Law, Dean’s Office of the University of Johannesburg, former UNIDROIT Governing Council Member), Prof. Eesa Fredericks (Head of Department of Mercantile Law of University of Johannesburg, UNIDROIT Governing Council Member) and Prof. Marlene Wethmar-Lemmer (Professor of Private International Law, University of South Africa) respectively showcased the impact of the UNIDROIT Principles of International Commercial Contracts on South African Law and their role in regulating international sales contracts under the African Continental Free Trade Agreement.
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.