ELI – UNIDROIT Transnational Rules of Civil Procedure
FIRST JOINT ELI-UNIDROIT WORKSHOP (2013)
The first joint ELI-UNIDROIT Workshop entitled “From Transnational Principles to European Rules of Civil Procedure”, in cooperation with the American Law Institute, was held in Vienna on 18 and 19 October 2013. In line with the specific nature of the endeavour, participation of leading academics but also practicing lawyers, judges and members of European institutions was considered to be a key element in the success of the Workshop.
STEERING COMMITTEE – FIRST SESSION (2014)
On 12 – 13 May 2014, at the seat of UNIDROIT in Rome, the Steering Committee of the project held its first meeting, where it was decided that the first three topics to be examined would be access to information and evidence, interim and protective measures and service of documents. These three topics should be followed by lis pendens and res judicata and obligations of the parties and lawyers. Each topic was assigned to a Working Group (Co-Chaired by two of its members). It was decided that work should start on the first three, followed by the remaining two in 2015.
>>> Report on the meeting
ELI PROJECTS CONFERENCE AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY (2014)
The Project was presented during the ELI Projects Conference and General Assembly on 24-26 September 2014, where John Sorabji, on behalf of the Steering Committee, provided an outline of the project inviting all participants who were interested to participate in the specific consultation group. Anna Veneziano, Deputy Secretary-General, attended on behalf of UNIDROIT.
STEERING COMMITTEE AND WORKING GROUPS – FIRST JOINT MEETING (2014)
A Joint Meeting of the members of the Steering Committee and Working Groups was held at the seat of UNIDROIT in Rome on 27-28 November 2014. Preliminary reports produced by the first three Working Groups (access to information and evidence, provisional and protective measures, and service of documents) were discussed and two further groups (lis pendens and res judicata and obligations of the parties and lawyers) were set up. A number of Observers from Intergovernmental Organisations (Hague Conference on Private International Law (HCCH)), European Institutions (the European Commission, the European Parliament (JURI Committee), the Court of Justice of the European Union), Professional Associations (the Association for International Arbitration (AIA), the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe (CCBE), the Council of the Notariats of the European Union (CNUE), the European Network of the Councils of the Judiciary (ENCJ), the International Bar Association (IBA), the Union Internationale des Avocats (UIA), the Union internationale des huissiers de justice (International Union of Judicial Officers) (UIHJ)), and Research Institutions (the International Association of Procedural Law and the Max-Planck Institute of Luxembourg for International, European and Regulatory Procedural Law) attended the meeting. The American Law Institute (ALI), which prepared the ALI/UNIDROIT Principles of Transnational Civil Procedure jointly with UNIDROIT, also attended.
– Agenda (UNIDROIT 2014 – SC II – Misc. 1)
– Provisional Order of Business (UNIDROIT 2014 – SC II – Misc. 2)
– Working Group on Provisional and Protective Measures – First Report, November 2014
(UNIDROIT 2014 – Doc. 1)
– Working Group on Access to Information and Evidence – Powerpoint presentation
(UNIDROIT 2014 – Doc. 2 Add.)
– Working Group on Access to Information and Evidence – First Report, November 2014
(UNIDROIT 2014 – Doc. 2 Corr.)
– Working Group on Service – First Report, November 2014 (UNIDROIT 2014 – Doc. 3)
– Report, November 2014 (UNIDROIT 2014 – Doc. 5)
STEERING COMMITTEE AND CO-REPORTERS – FIRST JOINT MEETING (2015)
A joint meeting of the Steering Committee and the Chairs of the Working Groups was held in Brussels, on 16 April 2015. On the Agenda were the progress reports of the first three Working Groups (Access to Information and Evidence, – Service of Documents, Provisional and Protective Measures) as well as the first reports of the Working Groups on Res judicata and lis pendens and Obligations of the Parties and Lawyers.
>>> Further information
EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT – COMMITTEE ON LEGAL AFFAIRS
A hearing of the Committee on Legal Affairs of the European Parliament was held in Brussels on 16 April 2015, at which the ELI-UNIDROIT project was introduced and the preliminary results of the first Working Groups discussed.
STEERING COMMITTEE AND WORKING GROUPS – SECOND JOINT MEETING (TRIER CONFERENCE) (2015)
On 26-27 November 2015, UNIDROIT and the ELI held a conference at ERA headquarters in Trier entitled “From Transnational Principles to European Rules of Civil Procedure”. This interactive conference was an opportunity for the ELI and Unidroit to present their work on Transnational Rules of civil procedure in five different sessions, each discussing the key topics: Access to information and evidence, Provisional and protective measures, Service and due notice of proceedings, Obligations of parties and lawyers, Res judicata and lis pendens. About 70 participants, from diverse legal backgrounds, attended the conference.
>>> Further information
STEERING COMMITTEE AND CO-REPORTERS – SECOND JOINT MEETING (2016)
A meeting of the Steering Committee and co-reporters was held in Rome, on 21 and 22 April 2016. Co- Reporters from the working groups Access to Information and Evidence, Res judicata and lis pendens, Service and due notice of proceedings, Provisional and protective measures, and Obligations of parties and lawyers presented their progress reports for discussion with the Steering Committee. The meeting proceeded with the introductory presentations of the new working groups, Costs and Judgments, and also addressed the functions and future work for a transversal working group to address Structure.
– Agenda (SC IV – Doc. 1)
– Report of Working Groups
· Access to Information and Evidence (SC IV – Doc. 2)
· Res judicata and lis pendens (SC IV – Doc.3)
· Service and due notice of proceedings (SC IV – Doc. 4)
· Provisional and protective measures (SC IV – Doc. 5)
· Obligations of parties and lawyers (SC IV – Doc. 6)
ELI-UNIDROIT Project presented at Civil Procedure Conference in Budapest
On 30-31 May 2016, the Deputy Secretary-General represented UNIDROIT in a Conference on the “New Hungarian Civil Procedure Act and the Development of European Rules of Civil Procedure” co-organised by the ELI, the Hungarian Ministry of Justice, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Institute for Legal Studies and the National Office for the Judiciary. The event took place in Budapest (Hungary) at the Hungarian Academy of Justice. The conference introduced the ELI-UNIDROIT project “From Transnational Principles to European Rules of Civil Procedure” to Hungarian lawyers. The structure of the Conference was organised along the five initial topics of the ELI-UNIDROIT project and featured presentations of the speakers representing the ELI-UNIDROIT working parties.
Click here for more information on the conference.
ELI ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY (2016)
On 7-9 September 2016, the ELI-UNIDROIT project “From Transnational Principles to European Rules of Civil Procedure” was presented during the ELI Annual Conference and General Assembly.
– For more information click here
ELI-UNIDROIT JOINT MEETING OF THE STEERING COMMITTEE WITH WORKING GROUP REPORTERS, MEMBERS, ADVISERS AND OBSERVERS, 21-22 NOVEMBER 2016, VIENNA
The Members of the ELI-UNIDROIT Project “From Transnational Principles to European Rules of Civil Procedure” met on 21-22 November 2016 in Vienna to discuss the advanced drafts of the three initial Working Groups, ‘Access to information and evidence’, ‘Service and due notice of proceedings’, and ‘Provisional and protective measures’. The ELI President, Diana Wallis, and the UNIDROIT Deputy Secretary-General, Anna Veneziano, opened the two-day meeting welcoming the participants of the meeting, Project’s Reporters, Working Group Members, Advisers and Observers. The Representatives of the European Commission, European Parliament, the Council of Bars and Law Societies of Europe, the Hague Conference on Private International Law, Members of the UNIDROIT Governing Council, private practitioners, and academics, attended the event and contributed with valuable remarks and comments on the presented draft rules.
STEERING COMMITTEE, WORKING GROUP CO-REPORTERS – THIRD JOINT MEETING, WITH THE PARTICIPATION OF THE MEMBERS OF THE WORKING GROUPS (2017)
Steering Committee Members, Co-Reporters and members of the Working Groups of the ELI-UNIDROIT joint project convened on 5-7 April 2017 in Rome to discuss issues pertaining to the finalisation of the drafts of the first three Working Groups and progress drafts and reports of the other Working Groups. On the first day, the Working Group on “Structure” discussed, together with the Steering Committee and representatives of Co-Reporters of the Working Groups, the consolidated text of three final drafts on ‘Service and due notice of proceedings’, ‘Access to information and evidence’ and ‘Provisional and protective measures’, as well as general points regarding project coordination.
The official part of the Joint Steering Committee Meeting with Members of the Project took place on the next two days, under the chairmanship of the Secretary General of the UNIDROIT, José Angelo Estrella Faria, and the ELI President, Diana Wallis. All Members of the Steering Committee were present as well as Co-reporters and numerous Members of all of the Project’s Working Groups (currently eight WGs: ‘Access to information and evidence’; ‘Provisional and protective measures’; ‘Service and due notice of proceedings’; ‘Obligations of parties, lawyers and judges’; ‘Res judicata and lis pendens’; ‘Judgments’; ‘Parties’; ‘Costs’; and ‘Structure’).
More information Meeting Agenda
ELI ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY (2017)
On 7 September 2017, the ELI-UNIDROIT project on Transnational Rules of Civil Procedure project was presented at the 2017 ELI Annual Conference in Vienna. ELI President Diana Wallis and Secretary-General ad interim of UNIDROIT Anna Veneziano co-chaired a panel of the transversal Working Group of the Project, concerned with Structure. The panel presented the first consolidated draft of the Rules resulting from the work of the first three Working Groups (Provisional and Protective Measures, Access to Information and Evidence, and Service of Documents), which had already been presented to the UNIDROIT Governing Council in May 2016.
STEERING COMMITTEE AND WORKING GROUPS – JOINT MEETING (NOVEMBER 2017)
On 16- 17 November, the ELI-UNIDROIT Project Members, Advisers and Observers convened in the Palais Trautson of the Austrian Ministry of Justice to discuss draft rules on European civil procedure developed by the newest working groups of the Project. During the two-day event, Members of the Project heard presentations and debated on such topics as pendency, parties, costs, and judgments in civil procedure. The overarching working group ‘Structure’ also presented an updated version of the consolidated draft of European principles of civil procedure, encompassing the work of the first three Working Groups of the Project (access to information and evidence, provisional and protective measures, and service of documents).Diana Wallis (Past ELI President) and Anna Veneziano (Secretary-General a.i. UNIDROIT) opened the meeting, in which Co-reporters gave updates and allowed others to discuss the progress and direction of their Working Group.
On 16 November 2017, Frédérique Ferrand (University of Lyon) and Burkhard Hess (Max Planck Institute Luxembourg) from the ‘Lis Pendens and Res Judicata’ Working Group presented their draft rules, followed by Astrid Stadler (University of Konstanz) and Emmanuel Jeuland (University of Paris) from the ‘Parties’ Working Group. The day ended with a dinner attended by participants at Melker Stiftskeller. On the following day, Paul Oberhammer (University of Vienna) presented the draft rules on ‘Costs.’ A presentation and discussion of the latest version of the consolidated drafts on three sets of rules (‘Access to information’, ‘Provisional and protective measures and ‘Service and due notice of proceedings’) was given by Loïc Cadiet (University of Paris) and Xandra Kramer (Utrecht University). Finally, rounding up the day, Christoph Kern (University of Heidelberg) presented the draft rules on ‘Judgements’.
-> Click here for the agenda.
STEERING COMMITTEE, WORKING GROUP CO-REPORTERS – JOINT Meeting (Rome 2018)
The Annual Steering Committee meeting with the Co-reporters of all Working Groups was held in Rome on 9-10 April 2018. The meeting addressed the current working drafts on “Judgements”, “Parties”, and “Lis Pendens and Res Judicata”, as well as the progress of the Working Groups on “Costs” and “Appeals”. The overarching Working Group concerned with “Structure” also presented on the main issues and solutions for the Structure of the Consolidated Draft.
-> Report
ELI ANNUAL CONFERENCE AND GENERAL ASSEMBLY (2018)
On 6 September 2018, the ELI-UNIDROIT project on Transnational Rules of Civil Procedure was presented at the 2018 ELI Annual Conference in Riga. ELI President Diana Wallis and Deputy Secretary-General of UNIDROIT Anna Veneziano co-chaired a panel, which was dedicated first to providing a brief overview of the progression of the Structure Group and its current status with possible topical issues including the scope/layout of the structure, use of comparative materials and the positioning of certain sections/topics. Further, the panel explored how the projects would confront the new developments of the digital age. Finally, the latest draft of the Working Group dedicated to Parties was addressed to show how the group had tackled certain topical issues (i.e. collective redress) given the new EU proposals and third party funding. The panel, which included Professors Xandra Kramer (University of Rotterdam), Mr John Sorabji (Principal Legal Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice and Master of the Rolls, Judicial Office for England and Wales), and Professor Emmanuel Jeuland (La Sorbonne), stimulated a lively discussion among the participants.
ELI/UNIDROIT PROJECT ON TRANSNATIONAL CIVIL PROCEDURE – FORMULATION OF REGIONAL RULES PRESENTED IN TRIER
The ELI/UNIDROIT Project on Transnational Civil Procedure – Formulation of Regional Rules was showcased at a conference held on 26-27 November in Trier, with participation of project members and external commentators. The conference, hosted by the Academy of European Law (ERA), was opened by Dr Angelika Fuchs (Head of European Private Law Section, ERA), Diana Wallis (Former President of ELI, Independent European Lawyer, Hull), Professor Anna Veneziano (Deputy Secretary-General, UNIDROIT) and Mr Robert Bray (Former Head of Unit, Committee on Legal Affairs, European Parliament), and featured three focus panels addressing key project issues, namely “Parties, collective redress and funding”, “Civil procedure, the challenges of modern technology and artificial intelligence”, and “Structure of civil proceedings – towards a coherent model law”, as well as an introductory panel, chaired by Professor Anna Veneziano, which featured an overview on various aspects of the draft provided by the project Working Groups.
STEERING COMMITTEE WORKING GROUP AND CO-REPORTER MEETING – ROME 2019
The annual plenary meeting of the Steering Committee, Working Groups and Co-Reporters will be held in Rome on 25-26 February 2019.
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.
