Dear Members:
Greetings from the 2007 Spring Meeting at the Fairmont Hotel in Washington, D.C.! We are in the midst of four exciting days of programming, with more than 1,000 participants from 46 countries. Great thanks go to our sponsors and our Planning Committee, and I would especially like to thank the Meeting Co-Chairs, Michael Burke, Lisa Savitt, and James Klotz.
April was an incredibly busy month for our Section's members. On April 16, we co-sponsored the ABA's third International Rule of Law Symposium, which took place in New York. The next day, we brought together members of the Section and ABA leadership — including the President, President-Elect, President-Elect Nominee, Treasurer, Chair of the House of Delegates, and Members of the House and the Board of Governors — for ABA Day at the UN to meet with officials at the UN and the U.S. Mission to the UN.
Our Law Student, LL.M. and Young Lawyer Committee has actively promoted the Section's Pathways to Employment in International Law program, and we were able to co-sponsor two events last month, one on April 12 at the Washington College of Law at American University in Washington, D.C., and another on April 18 at the University of San Diego School of Law. Tomorrow the Section will host a Pathways event in conjunction with the Spring Meeting that will be open to all law students in Washington, D.C. If you would like to host a similar program at your law school, or if you would like to share your career insights through a Pathways program, please contact Membership Director Angela Benson at bensona@staff.abanet.org.
Deborah Enix-Ross, Section Chair
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Gloria F. DeHart and Peter Winship Named ABA Advisors to NCCUSL Committees
ABA International member Gloria F. DeHart has been named as an Advisor to the National Conference of Commissioners on Uniform State Laws (NCCUSL) Drafting Committee to Amend the Uniform Interstate Family Support Act. DeHart is the former Deputy Attorney General for the State of California and has served in the U.S. Department of State Office of the Assistant Legal Adviser for Private International Law as a lawyer adviser for family law issues. Peter Winship has been named as an Advisor to the Drafting Committee for Implementation of the U.N. Convention on Independent Guarantees ad Stand-by Letters of Credit. He serves as the James Cleo Thompson Sr. Trustee Professor of Law at the Southern Methodist School of Law in Dallas, Texas.
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ABA International Programs
For updates on programming and events, visit our Section calendar on-line at www.abanet.org/intlaw/calendar
May 24-25, 2007
Class Actions at a Crossroads: Europe's Choice between Its Own and the American Model
Rome, Italy
Jointly Sponsored by ABA International and the Litigation Committee of the Disputate Resolution Section of the International Bar Association
Topics include:
- The current status of class and collective actions in Europe
- What European legislators can learn from the U.S. and Canadian experience
- Problems incorporating U.S.-style class actions into Europe
- European legislative developments on collective actions
- A mock hearing on class certification and roundtable discussion
Visit www.ibanet.org/conferences/litigationconf2007/ for more information.
August 8-12, 2007
Leadership Retreat and ABA/Section Annual Meeting — San Francisco, California
Mark your calendar for the 2007 ABA/Section Retreat and Annual Meeting in San Francisco, California. A leadership retreat will take place August 8-9 at the Fairmont Sonoma Mission Inn and Spa. The Annual Meeting will take place August 10-12, and the Section will be headquartered at San Francisco's lovely and centrally located Westin St. Francis Hotel. Register for the meeting and be sure to make your hotel reservations at the St. Francis.
SAVE THE DATE for the 2007 Fall Meeting in London, England, October 3-6 at The Grosvenor House Hotel.
Click here to see what this meeting will offer!
October 16, 2007
8th Annual American Bar Association Section of International Law Breakfast
At the International Bar Association Annual Meeting October 14-19
Singapore
Join the top leaders of the ABA and the Section of International Law as they discuss the ABA's action plan to respond to rule of law challenges worldwide. The breakfast will feature leading experts, in-house counsel and practitioners who will discuss the rule of law in a global context, but with a special focus on Asia. For more information, visit www.ibanet.org.
Co-Sponsored Programs
Click here for ABA International Co-Sponsored Programs
CLE Teleconferences
ABA International hosts CLE teleconferences every month. We need your suggestions and ideas for future events. For more information about the Section's CLE teleconference program, please contact Tally White at whitet@staff.abanet.org or by phone at +1 (202) 662-1672.
Tuesday, May 8, 2007
11:30AM — 1:00PM
Cross-Border Employment, Discrimination, Non- Competition, and Privacy: A Practical Look
With the growth in trade between the United States, Canada, and Latin America, there is an ever-increasing focus on labor and employment issues. Whether the issue involves sexual harassment, discrimination, or day-to-day hiring and firing, all of these have strong cultural overtones. This program will provide a practical discussion of key labor and employment law issues which face companies in cross-border environments. The speakers will structure their remarks around a hypothetical scenario involving the cross-border transfer of a female executive.
And Mark your calendars for this upcoming teleconference program:
Tuesday, May 22, 2007
11:30AM — 1:00PM
Managing Litigation in the Americas
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2007 INTERNATIONAL INTERNSHIP PROGRAM
The Law Student, LLM, and New Lawyer Outreach Committee has kicked off the 2007 International Internship program, which facilitates the establishment of legal internships for U.S. law students interested in the practice of international law with overseas firms. The Committee is in the process of canvassing a list of law firms interested in participating in our program starting in the spring/summer of 2007. For more information, contact Committee Co-Chair Ian Meyeroff at meyeroffis@state.gov.
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International Labor and Employment Law
The 25 chapters in this book cover specialty topics and will provide the nonspecialist a basis for dealing intelligently with the problem at hand. Each chapter provides an overview of the topic and a compendium of useful sources of assistance, including:
- Published materials - both primary sources (statutes, regulations, treaties, and related materials) and secondary sources (books, periodicals, and related materials)
- Institutional sources such as government agencies, international organizations, and nongovernmental organizations
- Online services
 Lawyers increasingly face commercial transactions and disputes with an international dimension. Thanks to globalization, goods, services, and capital cross international boundaries more frequently and in greater quantities than was ever imaginable only a few years ago. Significant commercial negotiations typically involve performance in more than one jurisdiction and parties of different, sometimes several, nationalities. If a dispute arises, the courts of more than one country and/or arbitral or other private tribunals may have jurisdiction. Special rules will determine the proper forum, the procedures followed by that forum, and the enforcement of any resulting decision.
International legal issues also arise in noncommercial contexts. Because people move across borders, national immigration laws have had to address personal as well as business immigration. Other family law issues — marriage, divorce, adoption, and child custody — can have an international dimension. Family wealth transfers — wills, trusts, and estates — also increasingly defy national boundaries. Bankruptcy — individual or corporate — is still largely governed by national law, but international issues are increasing.
Click here for more information.
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Recommended Reading from the OECD Liaison
Paul Crampton, ABA International Liaison to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) recommends the latest edition of the Business and Industry Advisory Committee to the OECD Newsletter, available online at www.biac.org/comms/newsletter/BIACNewsMar2007.pdf. In this issue, BIAC addresses the current debate within the OECD on its engagement with the major emerging economies while also highlighting some of the significant policy work currently on the BIAC agenda and upcoming ministerial meetings.
The headlines include:
- Business urges timely implementation of OECD recommendations to expedite resolution of cross border tax disputes
- Innovation for growth to be addressed at OECD Ministerial Council
- Close BIAC involvement in preparation for OECD Environment Ministerial
- First meeting of BIAC nanotechnology experts in July
- BIAC looking ahead to the OECD Ministerial Meeting on the “Future of the Digital Economy”
- BIAC calls for international best practices in procurement
- USCIB membership event highlights value of OECD work to U.S. business
- Calendar of Upcoming Meetings
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