|
Welcome to the Section Update, a monthly electronic newsletter bringing
you the latest on Section of International Law activities.
|
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
On behalf of The American Bar
Association Section of International Law (ABA International),
we wish you all a happy and healthy New Year. We have plans for
a very exciting, content-driven and fun-filled year lined up.
See the calendar below for details. As a Section member,
I hope you are ready to take advantage of ABA International’s
many upcoming |
programs,
events, publications
and activities and we are engaged in many projects of importance
to international law and practice.
Keep in mind that the big ABA
International events will soon occur. In particular, keep an
eye out early next month for the 2006 Spring Meeting brochure.
The Spring Meeting is always our largest event of the year, and
this year, we have pulled out all the stops. Don’t miss what we expect to be a spectacular
meeting. Located at The Waldorf=Astoria, the 2006 Spring Meeting
will serve as an important outreach to more than 1,200 participants
from around the world including practitioners, corporate counsel,
academics, and officials from US government and international
institutions. This meeting will include
three full days with more than 70 CLE programs in seven major
program tracks that will appeal to every possible international
practice interest: Public Law, Customs/Trade Law, Litigation/Dispute
Resolution, Regulatory, Transaction, a separate Corporate Counsel
track, and a track devoted to Law Practice issues. Special Events
include an opening wine tasting and International Reception at
The Waldorf=Astoria; a featured address by Keynote Speaker Jane
Goodall; a program on the Lessons of 9/11 for the fight against
international terrorism with former U.S. Attorney General Richard
Thornburg, former Illinois Governor (and 9/11 Commission member)
James Thompson, and Senator Joseph Biden, Jr. (Invited) to be held
at the Association of the Bar of the City of New York; a closing
Consular Reception at New York University, and three luncheons
with prominent speakers including Judge Thomas Buergenthal, recently
re-elected by the U.N. General Assembly as a judge on the International
Court of Justice, who will receive the Louis B. Sohn Award for
Public International Law at the luncheon on Thursday, April 6,
radio/TV personality Charles Osgood who will address us at the
luncheon on Friday, April 7, and an equally prominent speaker (TBA)
for the luncheon on Wednesday, April 5.
Visit the Spring Meeting website to register today and to get
an early peek at meeting activities.
I am pleased to report that an
article published in our quarterly newsletter, International
Law News, has received special
recognition as one of the best articles in a newsletter
from a Section of the American Bar Association. The article, entitled “Combating
Trafficking of Persons” – which appeared on page one
of the International Law News, Summer 2005 edition - has
been selected for inclusion in the March 2006 issue of Best of
ABA Sections, a special issue of the ABA General Practice, Solo
and Small Firms Division’s magazine, GPSolo. Congratulations
to the author, Jonathan Todres!
Throughout the rest of the year, we will continue to provide
cutting edge teleconferences and new publications to compliment
your international legal practice.
Michael H. Byowitz, Section Chair
|
Council
Meeting. The next Meeting of ABA International’s Council,
our policy making body, will take place on Thursday, February
9, 1:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m., at the Bank of America building next door
to the ABA Office in Washington, DC . During this meeting,
the Council will hear reports from the leadership and discuss important
policy matters, including a draft Report and Recommendation on the
Alien Tort Claims Act, a draft chapter on the attorney-client privilege
focusing on the international perspectives, and whether the trial of
Saddam Hussein should be moved out of Iraq. We may also need to debate
requests from other ABA entities to co-sponsor policy initiatives that
have been placed on the February HOD agenda. Council meetings are open
to attendance by Section members. Please advise Emily Rath at rathe@staff.abanet.org if
you would like to attend.
Administration Committee. The
next in-person Meeting of ABA International’s Administration
Committee, which supervises the operations of the Section, will be
held on Thursday, February 9, 8:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., at the DC Office
of the American Bar Association.
Strategic Planning. ABA
International is holding a leadership session in Washington, DC
on February 8 to review and discuss potential changes to the Section’s
strategic plan. Proposed revisions to the strategic plan will be considered
at the Administration Committee meeting to be held at the 2006 Spring
Meeting in New York.
Report on Services Negotiations at the WTO Ministerial Meetings
in Hong Kong. Three ABA International leaders, Maria DiGiulian,
John Magnus, and Mark Sandstrom, attended the WTO Ministerial Meetings
held December 13 – 18, 2005 in Hong Kong as the official NGO
representatives of the ABA. One purpose in attending the meetings was
to support the U.S. Government negotiators in their efforts to seek
liberalization of access to foreign legal services markets. While in
Hong Kong, our representatives met with bar association representatives
from Hong Kong, the Law Society of England & Wales, and South Africa,
who had also registered to participate with NGO status at the Ministerial,
to discuss issues related to the delivery of legal services in foreign
jurisdictions. Click
here to read the ABA’s Hong Kong Ministerial Policy Statement.
Although the current WTO round of multilateral
negotiations, the Doha Development Agenda (DDA), encompasses a number
of trade sectors, two areas dominated the Hong Kong meetings: Agriculture
and Development. With regard to services, subject to the WTO General
Agreement on Trade in Services (GATS), relatively little was accomplished
during the meetings. The U.S. services negotiators’ main effort
was directed at preserving the services section of the draft ministerial
declaration, including Annex C, which deals with the negotiating methodology
for further services trade liberalization. A number of developing countries
who are resistant to the liberalization of services trade attempted
to weaken the services section of the ministerial declaration during
the meeting. However, their efforts failed, and that section survived
with no significant modifications.
Included in Annex C, as finally adopted, is a timeline for the services
negotiation. WTO member states are to submit initial offers to liberalize
restrictions on access to markets in services as soon as possible. Members
presenting plurilateral requests are directed to submit such requests
by February 28, 2006. Revised offers are to be submitted by July 31,
2006, and a final draft schedule of commitments on services is due by
October 31, 2006.
Given that there are now 150 WTO Member
States and over 150 services sectors included within the scope of GATS,
the United States and other developed countries have argued that it
would be difficult to make progress in the DDA if the negotiations
are undertaken only by individual offers and requests made on a bilateral
basis. Instead, a plurilateral methodology where groups of countries
could negotiate general commitments on services could be more effective.
Such commitments would be extended to all member states on an “MFN” basis.
Under the GATS, the negotiations on
legal services cover two areas: the liberalization of access to the
services market, and the regulation of disciplines imposed upon service
providers (for example qualification and licensing requirements) such
that they do not impose unnecessary barriers to trade. The market in
services is divided into four modes by which services may be offered.
Mode 3 (permanent physical presence in another member’s territory)
and Mode 4 (temporary presence of the service provider in the foreign
territory) are of primary interest to U.S. lawyers.
With respect to Mode 3, the ABA has
adopted a Recommendation and Report supporting the USTR’s efforts
to obtain increased access to foreign markets for U.S. lawyers through
permanent presence in such markets. This Recommendation mirrors the
ABA Model Rule for the Licensing of Legal Consultants, which defines
the manner in which foreign legal consultants may establish offices
in a local jurisdiction in order to advise clients on the laws of the
jurisdiction in which they are licensed. The goal of the U.S. negotiators
is to reach agreements with other countries so that U.S. lawyers are
permitted to open offices and/or affiliate with local attorneys and
firms in foreign jurisdictions in order to advise clients on U.S. and
international law.
The practice of law is regulated at
the State level in this country. Some trading partners have requested
that the States permit foreign legal consultants to have the same opportunity
to practice in America that the U.S. is seeking for its lawyers abroad.
Under the auspices of the ABA GATS Task Force and the Section’s
Committee on Transnational Legal Practice Committee, chaired respectively
by former Section Chairs Ken Reisenfeld and Bob Lutz, the Section has
been working with State bar representatives to encourage them to permit
foreign legal consultants to practice in their states. To date, over
half of the States, representing over 80 percent of the U.S. legal
services market, have adopted such rules.
With respect to Mode 4, the temporary
presence by foreign lawyers in local jurisdictions, the U.S. negotiators
are somewhat hamstrung given the current resistance of Congress to
trade agreements that require liberalizing visa restrictions on the
entry of foreign workers into this country. Legislators are particularly
concerned about the possibility of an agreement containing Mode 4 commitments
coming before the Congress under the expedited Trade Promotion Authority
(“TPA”) procedures, which provide
for limited debate and a simple up-or-down vote without amendments. They
have obtained a political commitment from the Administration not to include
Mode 4 commitments in any trade agreement presented for approval handled
under the TPA procedures. ABA policy supports TPA in its full, original
scope which would permit negotiators, in their discretion, to address
Mode 4 issues and undertake Mode 4 commitments to the same extent as
any other issue raised by trading partners in the negotiations. Any trade
agreement that is concluded in the Doha Round would not enter into effect
until reviewed and ratified by the Congress under the TPA procedures
During the Hong Kong meetings, USTR
officials involved in the services negotiations requested that the
ABA join in the efforts of representatives of other U.S. services sectors
to persuade the Congressional Committees with concerns about U.S. immigration
policies to restore TPA’s
full original scope and permit U.S. negotiators to accept, should circumstances
so warrant, Mode 4 commitments in the Doha Round. If the Section decides
to undertake such an effort with the Congress, the Section’s activities
would be coordinated with the appropriate State bar representatives in
order to insure that their regulatory concerns and responsibilities are
taken into consideration.
Foreign Market
Access for Legal Services
The ABA seeks enhanced foreign market
access for U.S. lawyers. While the ABA strongly endorses autonomous
liberalization in the legal services sector, the negotiation and implementation
of market access commitments under the General Agreement on Trade in
Services (GATS) is the primary vehicle for liberalization and should
be accelerated by all WTO Member governments. The ABA has formally
urged the U.S. Government to press its trading partners for broad and
deep GATS commitments to assure access to U.S. providers of legal services
in their countries.
Of particular importance are the rights for lawyers to open offices in foreign
jurisdictions, and to employ and to enter partnerships with local lawyers to
practice under their home office firm name without undue constraints on the
scope of the law on which they may render professional services. In general,
foreign-licensed lawyers may be prohibited from practicing the law of the host
state or country, unless on the basis of advice from a person duly qualified
and entitled to render professional advice of the host state or country. However,
in addition to home country law, foreign-licensed lawyers should be authorized
to advise on international and third-country law, at least to the extent that
host country lawyers can advise on such law. At the same time, host countries
may place certain specific restrictions on the scope of practice which are
necessary and appropriate for the protection of the public.
The United States maintains an open
market for the practice of law by foreign-licensed lawyers, access
to which is primarily regulated by the individual States. As long ago
as 1993, the ABA adopted a "Model Rule" for adoption
by the States, pursuant to which the States would allow foreign lawyers to
establish offices and practices without local examination as so-called "foreign
legal consultants." More than one half of all U.S. States and
the District of Columbia have adopted rules permitting the licensure
of such foreign legal consultants. Those jurisdictions account for
more than 80% of the U.S. market for legal services.
In addition, a number of U.S. States
have adopted rules permitting foreign-licensed lawyers to become fully
licensed to practice law in the United States, such as by taking one
year of academic courses and a bar exam given in the English language.
Accordingly, the U.S. Government may properly request all major trading
countries to adopt rules and policies granting access to U.S. lawyers
comparable to that provided in the United States.
| ABA
INTERNATIONAL READING |
The ABA Enjoys a Close Relationship
with the CCBE, the Council
of Bars and Law Societies of Europe. The ABA and our
Section have a very close working relationship with the CCBE
on a number of projects of interest to lawyers around the world.
Of particular note is our cooperation in the following areas:
transnational legal practice and the GATS; money laundering, “Gatekeeper” issues,
and attorney-client privilege issues; international human rights
issues; codes of conduct and ethics for lawyers; corporate social
responsibility; issues involving in-house counsel; and alternative
dispute resolution.
The Council of Bars and Law Societies
of Europe (CCBE) was created in 1960 in order to represent the
various bars and law societies in Europe relative to their relations
with the European institutions. Its current membership numbers
28 delegations from all 25 member States of the European Union* and from three from countries in the European Economic Area**.
Another seven countries’ delegations have observer status***.
The CCBE is one of the most important organizations of lawyers
in the world, consisting of bar associations and law societies
representing over 700,000 lawyers in Europe. The CCBE works closely
with the European Commission, the European Parliament, the European
Court of Justice and the European Court of Human Rights, and it
issues position papers on a wide variety of subjects upon which
the lawyers in the different countries agree. The CCBE thus has
an important and influential voice in many policy areas of concern
to lawyers in Europe. With headquarters in Belgium, its small,
but extremely effective professional staff is headed by Jonathan
Goldsmith, its Secretary-General.
The CCBE’s president serves a one-year term. The current
President is Manuel Cavaleiro Brandão of Portugal. His immediate
predecessor, Bernard Vatier, is a former Batonnier of the Paris
Bar. In 2004, the president was Hans-Jurgen Hellwig, a former President
of the German Bar, who currently serves on the Council of ABA International
Law. Ramon Mullerat, another former president of the CCBE, also
serves as a member of our Council. Indeed, many of the leaders
and delegation members of the CCBE are friends of the Section.
The Section will continue to work closely with the CCBE and its
constituent bars and law societies. Our on-going objective is to
learn from, and support, one another for the betterment of the
profession and the positive influence we can exert on society.
We consider the CCBE to be one of our most important international
relationships.
You can learn more about the CCBE by visiting its web-site at www.ccbe.org .
If you wish to assist on joint projects with the CCBE, we urge you
to join (at no cost) the appropriate committee(s) within the Section
and volunteer to work on matters of interest to you within such committee(s).
* Austria, Belgium, Cyprus,
Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece,
Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta,
Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the Netherlands,
the United Kingdom.
** Norway, Iceland, Lichtenstein.
*** Bulgaria, Croatia, FYRO
Macedonia, Romania, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine.
--- Aaron Schildhaus, the
Section’s Financial Officer,
also serves as ABA International’s Liaison to the CCBE.
Sneak Peak at the Year
in Review. Every year, one of the quarterly
issues of ABA International’s outstanding law journal, The
International Lawyer, is reserved for The Year in
Review (YIR), a special edition that that contains a
review of significant developments in international and foreign
law and practice for the preceding calendar year. Work is
well underway on The Year in Review, spearheaded
by our superb YIR editors, Louise Ellen Teitz and Peter Winship,
and driven, as always by the substantive contributions of
our many ABA International Committees. For those of you who
can’t wait for an advance preview, several committees
have posted chapters in draft format in the “News and
Publications” section of their websites, which can
be found on the main Committees
homepage:
Anti-Corruption
Initiatives & Compliance Issues |
International
Antitrust Law |
Asia/Pacific |
International Commercial
Dispute Resolution |
China |
International Criminal
Law |
Europe |
International Cultural
Property |
Export Controls & Economic
Sanctions |
International Environmental
Law |
| Information Services, Technology & Data
Protection |
International Financial
Products & Services |
International Anti-Money
Laundering & Professional |
International Health Law |
Ethics |
International Securities & Capital
Markets - |
International Human Rights |
International
Accounting Standards Subcommittee |
International Investment & Development |
International Trade |
International Litigation |
International Transportation |
International M&A and
Joint Venture |
Latin America & Caribbean |
International Procurement |
Middle East |
| International Secured Transaction & Insolvency |
National Security |
| |
|
Visit the My ABA website to
view your current Section and committee memberships and update
your contact information. If you find that you don’t belong
to one or more committees of interest to you, join online.
All you need is your ABA ID# and your password (last name unless
previously updated).
International
Trade Committee. The Committee held its first meeting
of the New Year Wednesday, January 4. Angela Ellard and Everett
Eissenstat were the speakers at the meeting. Ms. Ellard
is the Staff Director of the U.S. House Ways and Means Trade Subcommittee,
and Mr. Eissenstat serves as Chief International Trade Counsel,
Majority, at the U.S. Senate Finance Committee.
The International Trade Committee also co-sponsored a Breakfast
at the Bar at the ABA Building in Washington, DC on January 17.
The featured speaker was Frank L. Lavin, Under Secretary for International
Trade, International Trade Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce.
NGO & Not-for-Profit
Organizations Committee. The Committee
held a Virtual Meeting to discuss Russia's NGO Law Revisions on
January 11 at 12:00pm. Comments on the New Russian NGO legislation
can be viewed on the committee's
blog.
Committee on Anti-Corruption Initiatives and Compliance
Issues. This newly-formed committee is hosting a Brown
Bag Lunch on Anti Bribery Compliance Challenges and Corporate "Best Practices" in
the Aerospace and Defense Industry on the 27th of January.
The panel will include: Cynthia Eaton, Compliance Manager, AAI
Corporation C. David Morris, Senior Counsel-International, Northrop
Grumman Corporation Kathleen E. Troy, Associate General Counsel,
International Trade & Compliance, ITT Industries, Inc. Click
here for details.
International Procurement Committee. The Committee will kick
off its 2006 luncheon series on January 31, 2006 at 12:00 p.m.
Kay Cannon, General Counsel for the Defense Security Cooperation
Agency, will provide the Committee with an overview of Foreign
Military Sales/Foreign Military Financing and an update on some
new developments. For details, please visit the committee website.
Featured Newsletters.
The International Trade
Committee newsletter now offers a Point/Counterpoint series, which
will offer opposing viewpoints on important trade topics on a regular
basis. In their current issue, the topic is the application of
countervailing duty (CVD) laws to non-market economies (NMEs) like
China. To read this edition, visit the International
Trade Committee’s
website.
Other noteworthy committee
newsletters include the following which can be located under “Newsletters
and Publications” on the committee webpages:
Immigration and Nationalization Law
International Health Law
International Human Rights
International
Securities & Capital Markets
Latin
America & Caribbean Committee
2006
International Internship Program. Coming Soon! The
Law Student, LL.M., and New Lawyer Outreach Committee is in the
process of developing the 2006 International Internship Program.
The program is intended to facilitate the establishment of legal
internships for U.S. law students interested in the practice
of international law with overseas law firms. In 2005, 54 ABA
members from 30 countries posted their firms on the Section’s
website. Due to the success of last year’s program, the
Committee hopes to increase member participation substantially.
To learn more about this program, please visit http://www.abanet.org/intlaw/intlinternship.html.
Join Us in SIN! One
of the more interesting initiatives ABA International has undertaken
recently is the creation of SIN - the Senior Interest Network.
This newly formed committee, along with YIN (Young Lawyers' Interest
Network), is patterned on the Section's hugely successful WIN
(Women's Interest Network). SIN is intended to compliment these
two committees and provide a more formal mechanism for lawyers
over 50 to become or remain more active in ABA International’s activities. Among the
projects SIN is exploring with YIN and the Law Student, LL.M.,
and New Lawyer Outreach Committee, is a mentoring program for the
Section’s younger lawyers. SIN will facilitate the
involvement of its members in the Section's varied activities,
including seasonal meetings and committee projects. If this sounds
interesting to you, join us in SIN!"
|
February 8-13 (ABA Midyear Meeting in Chicago)
While ABA International’s presence will be limited, there will
be three dynamic Section programs to attend: Pathways to Employment
on International Law, Grand Slam Program CLE Part One - Alternative
Careers Program ,
and The Nuts and Bolts of Immigration in the Northern Hemisphere . Visit
the ABA Midyear website for details.
March
9, 2006 (Teleconference)
Privacy and Data Protection
in an Age of Heightened Security
In this 90-minute teleconference the panelists will describe the impending "perfect
storm" in the information security environment, identify trends
contributing to its formation, and review the emerging legal requirements
that create data governance obligations for Directors. Details located
at http://www.abanet.org/cle/programs/t06dgv1.html
April
5-8, 2006
2006 Spring Meeting |
|
 |
Join us for ABA International’s
biggest event of the year. If you are going to attend only one
Section meeting, this is it. For more information, click
here.
The Waldorf=
Astoria, New York, NY |
|
And Now Is the Time to Make Your Plans for the 2006 Annual Meeting in Hawaii!
 |
|
The Annual Meeting will
have a distinct Asian flavor with many programs of mutual interest
to U.S. lawyers and the many Asian lawyers who are expected to attend.
ABA International is planning on offering a strong slate of CLE
programming, an international reception at the Army Museum of Hawaii
on Friday evening, August 4, a dinner at The Royal Hawaiian Hotel
on Saturday night, August |
5, and a reception
on Sunday, August 6, at a location to be announced.
will be family-friendly with no programs or events scheduled in the afternoons
so that you may enjoy the many sights and activities available
on the beautiful island of Oahu. Bring the family or at least
your golf clubs, tennis racket, bathing suit and/or site seeing
accoutrements. We are staying at the Hilton Hawaiian Village,
a large hotel conveniently located at the end of Waikiki, and
close to the beautiful Honolulu Convention Center, where our CLE
programs will be presented. Be
sure to request the Ali’i Tower, where ABA International
leadership and most members will be staying, and register as soon
as possible since spaces in this tower are limited. You
will also want to buy a CLE passport, so you can attend all Section
and ABA programming. This is a meeting you won’t
want to miss, so please register
now. Now is also the time to get great airfares.
Hilton Hawaiian Village, Honolulu, HI
February 2-3 (Co-Sponsored)
2006 Georgetown
International Trade Update
The Section is co-sponsoring the Georgetown
International Trade Update which will focus on up-to-the-minute developments
in international trade and customs law. For more information click here: http://www.abanet.org/intlaw/meet/ITU06.pdf
Georgetown
Law Center , Washington , DC
February 25-March 3, 2006 (Co-Sponsored)
Winter
Seminar of the Union Internationale Des Avocats
The Section
is co-sponsoring the Winter Seminar of the Union Internationale Des Avocats,
which will focus on the International Civil Litigation and the USA, including
white collar criminal issues. For more information, click
here.
Beaver Run Resort , Breckenridge ,
Colorado
|
|
