The Working Group on agricultural land investment contracts has thus far met four times. Summaries and documentation for each of the meetings are included below.
The Working Group’s first meeting took place at UNIDROIT’s seat in Rome on 3-5 May 2017, with the objective of receiving expert input to better define the contours of the work, in particular with respect to the possible scope of the instrument, thereby allowing both for the organisation of future work and for consultations with a broader group of experts and stakeholders. In particular, the Working Group discussed, inter alia, the following:
The documentation for the first meeting includes:
The Working Group’s second meeting took place at UNIDROIT’s seat in Rome on 13-15 September 2017. The Working Group discussed recent developments and general considerations in relation to the work, in particular with respect to the future instrument’s scope and target audience and its alignment to existing initiatives (e.g. the VGGT and CFS-RAI Principles); examined in detail the draft outline of the future instrument, proposed revisions to that outline and initial drafting contributions for certain chapters; and discussed the organisation of future work, including possible events and other means for raising awareness about the work, consulting stakeholders and seeking their input.
The documentation for the second meeting includes:
The Working Group’s third meeting was held at UNIDROIT’s seat in Rome on 25-27 April 2018. The Working Group began by discussing recent developments, including the Secretariat’s presentation of the work at the World Bank’s Annual Land and Poverty Conference (Washington, 19-23 March 2018), as well as some general considerations in relation to the work (e.g. scope and key themes). The Working Group then reviewed in detail drafts for the chapters and issues identified in the draft in-progress outline of the future instrument on agricultural land investment contracts and considered, in connection with that review, various drafting issues to facilitate revisions (e.g. terminology to be used; the framing of guidance to be offered; the level of detail to be provided; and references to other instruments and sources). Lastly, the Working Group discussed next steps (e.g. remaining drafting and revising responsibilities; stakeholder engagement and consultations for input on the drafts; and the upcoming schedule for the work) and decided that the fourth meeting of the Working Group would be held at UNIDROIT’s seat in Rome on 9-11 October 2018.
The documentation for the third meeting includes:
The Working Group’s fourth meeting on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts took place at UNIDROIT’s seat in Rome on 9-11 October 2018. The Working Group began by discussing recent developments, including a presentation of the work at the panel on “Sustainable Investment in Agriculture” (Rome, 8 October 2018) during the IBA’s annual conference and the upcoming side event on “Improving Agricultural Investment Contracts and the Contracting Process” (Rome, 18 October 2018) that will take place during the CFS’ 45th plenary session. The Group then reviewed in detail drafts for all of the chapters of the future Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts, which are expected to be consolidated into a combined and substantially complete draft by the end of 2018. Lastly, the Group discussed next steps, including the plan for broad and extended consultations on the draft Guide, for incorporating the input received and for finalising the Guide.
The documentation for the fourth meeting includes:
In addition, the UNIDROIT Secretariat has held, together with FAO and IFAD, two informal meetings and a CFS Side Event with experts and interested stakeholders – during the 43rd (Rome, 17-21 October 2016), 44th (Rome, 9-13 October 2017) and 45th plenary sessions (Rome, 15-19 October 2018) of the Committee on World Food Security (CFS) respectively – to raise awareness about the work and to solicit input on it.
The first informal meeting was held on 20 October 2016, at which participants discussed the scope, content and form of the future instrument on agricultural land investment contracts (see the draft agenda). The input received during the meeting was taken into consideration in the formation of the Working Group and was provided to that Group once constituted for its first meeting (Rome, 3-5 May 2017).
The second informal meeting was held on 11 October 2017, at which participants reviewed and commented on the draft in-progress outline (see the draft agenda). The input received during the meeting was provided to the Working Group for its consideration in preparing the chapter drafts that were reviewed at the Working Group’s third meeting (Rome, 25-27 April 2018).
The CFS Side Event was held with experts, interested stakeholders and participants on 18 October 2018. Entitled “Improving Agricultural Investment Contracts and the Contracting Process,” the event was moderated by Secretary-General Ignacio Tirado (UNIDROIT) and brought together an impressive panel of experts, including Ms Margret Vidar (FAO), Mr Charles Forrest (IFAD), Mr Lorenzo Cotula (IIED), Mr Brian Baldwin (CFS/Private Sector Mechanism) and Ms Ilaria Bottigliero (IDLO) (see the flyer for the event). The panel discussed UNIDROIT’s future Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts, examined some of the key issues and safeguards addressed in that Guide and sought input from participants for consideration by the Working Group.
Consultations on the ALIC Zero Draft: at its fourth meeting (Rome, 9-11 October 2018), the Working Group agreed that the revised draft Guide – the ALIC Zero Draft – should be submitted to broad and extended consultations to raise awareness about the Legal Guide and to seek further input from stakeholders, in order to ensure a high-quality product that responds to actual needs and complies with ascertained best practices. This course of action was endorsed by the Governing Council at its 98th session (Rome, 8-10 May 2019).
The consultation included various activities.
The key recommendations gathered throughout the course of all the consultations have been summarized and classified according to the issues raised and allocated based on the Guide’s chapters most likely to be impacted. For more information see the Consolidated Report.
Drafting committee meeting: on the basis of the feedback and comments received throughout the ALIC Zero Draft consultation process, the UNIDROIT Secretariat organised, in coordination with FAO and IFAD, a drafting committee meeting in Rome on 2-3 March 2020 (see the annotated agenda). The Secretariat provided a brief overview of the outcome of the consultations and an update on the next steps for finalisation of the ALIC Guide. Members of the drafting committee, including experts from the ALIC Working Group, reviewed each comment and recommendation received on a chapter-by-chapter basis and decided how the various chapters of the ALIC Zero Draft should be accordingly adapted. With a view to the finalisation of the future Legal Guide, a number of issues were discussed, such as: (a) terminology; (b) the framing of guidance; (c) the appropriate level of detail; (d) references to other instruments and sources; and (e) revisions of an editorial nature as to clarity of expression and user-friendliness.
Approval of the ALIC Guide: In September 2020, the UNIDROIT Governing Council approved the Legal Guide on Agricultural Land Investment Contracts, subject to possible minor adjustments during the process leading to the approval by the partner organisations.
For queries related to Agricultural Land Investment Contracts kindly contact Ms Priscila Andrade (p.andrade@unidroit.org)
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’.
Professor Donati is the author of several publications on corporate law, restructuring, insolvency law, and bank crisis management. On the same topics, he has been invited as a speaker to various international and national conferences and participated in some high-impact international, European, and national research projects. Professor Donati’s education includes a Ph.D. in Corporate Law (University of Rome ‘La Sapienza’), an LLM in Corporate Governance (Stanford Law School), and a Law Degree with honors (University of Florence). He is qualified as an attorney in Italy and in the State of New York (USA).
Ms Olga Fonotova is an Associate Professor of the Faculty of Law (Department of Legal Regulation of Business) at the Russian National Research University “Higher School of Economics” in Moscow. She holds a PhD degree cum laude in private law / private international law from the Lomonosov Moscow State University (2006). Her academic and teaching interests cover private international law, international and national commercial law, with a focus on unified and non-state legal regulation of cross-border commerce.
Olga is a Russian law qualified practicing lawyer in the sphere of national and international commercial and corporate law with 20+ years’ experience in leading law firms. As part of her legal practice, she has advised multinational corporations on the setting up of multi-jurisdictional commercial relations, on the formation / termination of international joint ventures, restructuring of assets, and financing / refinancing of projects. For her work on commercial and corporate legal matters she was included in the international rating of leading lawyers “The Best Lawyers® in Russia” (2018 – 2022).
She is a UNIDROIT alumna (2011) and a Correspondent of UNIDROIT in Russia (2023 – 2025). From 2016 to 2021 Olga was a member of the ICC Commission on Commercial Law and Practice (ICC CLP) and a member of the Association of European Business (AEB) in Moscow.
Allan M. Mukuki, PhD Candidate (Navarra, Spain), LLM (Groningen, Netherlands), PGDip (KSL), LLB (Hons) (UoN), ACIArb (London), Advocate of the High Court of Kenya.
Allan Mukuki is an Advocate of the High Court of Kenya as well as a Commissioner for Oaths. He is presently a PhD Candidate at the University of Navarra in Spain. He is also a holder of an LL.M in International Law and the Law of International Organizations, from the University of Groningen in the Netherlands. He has an LL. B (Hons) from the University of Nairobi, he is a Member of the Cha
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.
Some of his many roles in the legal profession include Director of International Partnerships; a Doctoral Fellow; member of the Management Committee and moot court coordinator, all for Strathmore Law School; Research Fellow for the African Region (Kenya), for the European Research Council Grant Project on the interpretation of customary international law; and Acting Director for the Strathmore Institute of Advanced Studies in International Criminal Justice (SIASIC)
Allan has previously worked at A.F Gross Advocate; in various legal institutes; in governmental agencies and in the Judiciary of Kenya. He was also a Legal researcher in the Office of the Solicitor General, Kenya, for the Maritime Delimitation in the Indian Ocean (Somalia v. Kenya), a case that was before the International Court of Justice. His main areas of specialization include Public International Law, The Law of International Organizations, International Humanitarian Law, International and Regional (EAC) Refugee Law and Legal Policy Development.
Further, Allan has been involved in various national and international legal consultancies and projects; he has published several peer reviewed legal articles, a legal monograph and presented several legal papers in international conferences around the world. He has also developed several policy documents for Strathmore University as well as (currently operational) manuals and laws for the operation of the Judiciary as well as governmental agencies and regional agencies such as IGAD.
ANDREA SANTACOLOMA
Director
PROFESSIONAL PRACTICE
Andrea Santacoloma is a Panamanian lawyer that focuses her practice on international commercial arbitration.
Prior to joining Adell & Merizalde, Andrea was the Deputy Director for Latin America of the ICC International Court of Arbitration for 5 years. In this role, she gained vast experience in the internal functioning of the ICC’s Secretariat and Court and saw first-hand the work of hundreds of arbitrators and ICC Court Members in the region. Andrea was also in charge of identifying new opportunities and potential users of the ICC Dispute Resolution Services (ICC DRS) in Latin America, in liaison with the ICC National Committees and other institutions in the region. She also worked as a lawyer advising local and international clients on business and corporate law and M&A in 3 Panamanian law firms.
She is currently the Executive Director of the Latin American Arbitration Association (ALARB), one of Latin America’s leading associations gathering practitioners and arbitrators, which seeks to encourage the use of arbitration and foster initiatives for the development of international arbitration in the region.
In July 2022, the G
overning Council of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT) appointed Andrea as a Correspondent for Latin America. Namely, Andrea was appointed as a Correspondent for the Republic of Panama for the period 2022-2025.
EDUCATION
• American University Washington College of Law, LL.M. in International Arbitration and Business Law
• International Training Centre of the International Labor Organization (ILO) jointly with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL), Università degli Studi di Torino, and University Institute of European Studies (IUSE), LL.M. in International Trade Law & Dispute Resolution
• Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua, LL.M. in Corporate Law
• Universidad Católica Santa María La Antigua, Degree in Law and Political Science
• Centro de Estudios Regionales de Panamá, Diploma in Entrepreneurship and Management of Small and Medium Enterprises
Bar admissions
Republic of Panama
Languages
Spanish, English, Italian (intermediate)
asantacoloma@adellmerizalde.com
+507 370 4155
NAME: PROF. DR. HERNANY VEYTIA (LL.M. YALE)
AFFILIATION DIRECTOR BNM-CAMBRIDGE STUDY CENTRE ON SUSTAINABLE INVESTMENTS
PRESENTATION
Professor of law, international strategic consultant, arbitrator, and entrepreneur. Hernany Veytia is very comfortable with complex, high-profile and confidential transactions. Her consulting experience as partner of BNM and Deloitte enables her to focus on and add value to the sustainable and commercial aspects of each deal. Frequently she leads transdisciplinary teams to deliver fact findings and legal opinions, feasibility studies and turn-key projects for banks, governments, international organisations, and corporations willing to expand or withdraw operations in other jurisdictions.
In Prof Veytia’s experience UNIDROIT works have been very useful to understand not only the foreign law, but also to recognise the cultural, political, and economic factors at play, and the way national and international regulators operate-and cooperate. In her opinion, UNIDROIT instruments have been of utmost importance for the legal strategies she designed for:
• DANPREIT (Dispute Analytics Platform for Real Estate Investment Trusts in the Agriculture, Construction and Mining industries).
• TELEKAIROS, innovative methodology that incorporates the use of space assets.
• Corporate art collections, restitutions, including donations, sponsorships, and loans to museums.
• Contracts used by a German waterworks company willing to grow in all the Caribbean and Central American countries.
• Liquidation of commercial and investment banks
• IPOs and reverse mergers for companies in the extraction industries (Canadian stock exchange), ILS listed in Bermuda and African sovereign funds listed in London.
• Franchising and other commercial contracts in the food & drinks, health, aero-space, and automotive industries.
In the last three decades Prof. Veytia has lived, and successfully completed investments and disinvestments in more than forty countries in the five Continents. She is frequently appointed as arbitrator and invited as speaker on risk transfers at international industry conferences in fields of her expertise: energy (both renewable and traditional), artificial intelligence, infrastructure, mining, real estate, agriculture, rail, space, automotive, and franchising. She sits in the board of directors of companies in Europe including the United Kingdom.
Anna Veneziano is the Deputy Secretary General of the International Institute for the Unification of Private Law (UNIDROIT). She is a Professor of Comparative Law at the University of Teramo, Italy, where she was formerly the Director of the Department of Private Law. She has also formerly been a tenured Professor of European Property Law at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). Her education includes a Law Degree with honours from the University of Rome La Sapienza, an LL.M degree from the Yale Law School funded by a Fulbright scholarship, and a PhD degree from the University of Florence (Italy).
Her main research and publication areas are on secured transactions as well as international, comparative, and European contract and sales law. Before joining UNIDROIT she was a member of the Italian delegation with respect to the Cape Town Convention on International Interests on Mobile Equipment and its Aircraft Protocol as well as its Space Protocol. She was also a member of the Study Group on a European Civil Code and of the Compilation and Redaction Group on a Draft Common Frame of Reference on European Private Law (DCFR), and of the restricted Expert Group set up by the European Commission on a common European law on sales.
P
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.
Amongst other accolades to his professional experience, Professor Tirado is a founding member of the European Banking Institute, an International Fellow of the American College of Bankruptcy and has been Director and Academic Co-Chair of the International Insolvency Institute.
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.
