Union Internationale des Avocats
The International Association of Lawyers (UIA - Union internationale des avocats) is a non-governmental organisation created in 1927, assembling more than 2,200 legal professionals over the world.
Historical Context
At the end of the 19th century, most European lawyers worked within autonomous and independent Bars, each with their own traditions.
However, after World War I, the idea grew among European lawyers that it was becoming essential to help certain Bars modernise and build international contacts.
In July 1925, Luxembourg, Belgian and French lawyers established the project of a “Union Internationale des Avocats” which took two long years of discussions to finally see the light of day on July 8, 1927 in Charleroi, Belgium.
The Bar President Georges Guillaumin[1] was nominated as the Association’s first President.
After the creation of l'Union Internationale des Avocats, several bar associations became members: in several years, the number of bar associations in the UIA became close to thirty. Every new bar participated in a double-objective created by the UIA: to adapt to a new economic life after war, and to work with the League of Nations to establish a sustainable peace.
Objectives
Today, the UIA defends the legal profession and encourages international networks, cooperation and understanding between lawyers with respect to their cultural and professional diversity.
Two objectives underlie the UIA's activities:
- Promote the essential principles of the legal profession and of the development of the legal science in all of the legal fields at the international level
- Contribute to the professional enrichment of its members due to information exchanges established by UIA Commissions and Work Groups
Missions
Today, the UIA is an association open to all lawyers in the world, general or specialists, and brings together several thousands of members and hundreds of bar associations, federations, and associations from more than 120 countries. Multilingual and multicultural, the UIA is the only major international lawyers organisations to have eight official languages (French, English, Spanish, Italian, German, Portuguese, Arabic, and Chinese) and to work in three daily languages: French, English, and Spanish. Moreover, the UIA has built more than 40 commissions and work groups composed of lawyers from jurisdictions all over the world. These lawyers practice their profession in law firms, in businesses, or in public institutions. Every commission examines the evolution happening in a particular legal field (or the practice) and determines in which measures these evolutions will affect or be affected by the other legal fields. Consequently, all of the UIA commissions collaborate, so as to keep each other informed of their respective evolutions. The commissions and work groups of the UIA are divided into two principal fields: Business Law and General Practice and Human Rights
Business Law
The UIA commissions and work groups in business law take interest in competition law, contracts, bankruptcy, corporate law, labour, intellectual property, tax, banking, mergers and acquisitions, mediation, the international sale of goods, foreign investments, and many other current problems in law.
The UIA collaborates in the work of the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law (UNCITRAL) and notably presented a proposition for a definition of a "center or principal interests" (articles 2b) and 16-3 of the UNCITRAL law on international insolvency.[2]
Every year, the UIA organises numerous seminars with international subjects.[3] From Zurich to Valencia, from New Delhi to Florence,[4] the events organised by the UIA permit participants to meet colleagues, to establish professional contacts and to debate questions about current events.
For its annual congress,[3] the UIA creates work meetings for its commissions. These commissions produce high quality reports accessible to all members.
The commissions also organise conjoined sessions of which the themes are common.
Each year, one or more principal themes are established, inciting national and international legal and economic personalities to participate in debates.
During its annual congress, the UIA sets off work meetings for its commissions
The commissions also organise conjoined sessions on which the themes are common and are developed by national and international personalities of the legal and economic world.
Protection of lawyers and Human Rights
The UIA frequently intervenes throughout the world in favour of lawyers who are imprisoned[5] or persecuted for practising their profession.[3] Since 1971, the UIA benefits, due to being a Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), from a special consultative status in front of the United Nations and the European Council. At the European Council, the UIA produced a recommendation on the matter of money laundering and the War on Terror.[6] The UIA is represented at principle seats in the United Nations (New York, Geneva, and Vienna), where the UIA regularly organises a summit for the presidents of bar associations of the entire world, intended to permit them to follow the work initiated by the UN in diverse domains of international law.[7] The UIA sits also at the heart of Consultative Councils of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. Finally, the UIA has also followed the work of the preparatory commission of the International Criminal Court since its creation. The UIA also attends sessions of the Assembly of States Parties to the Statute of the Court. The UIA is member to the executive council of the International Criminal Bar.
Members
- Individuals : Lawyers practising their profession to the principal title
- Collective: bar associations, associations, and federations of lawyers
- Associated individuals: other legal professions, professors, and judges
Presidency
The president is elected for a year.
- 2013-2014, former president: Stephen L. Dreyfuss, Hellring Lindeman Goldstein & Siegal LLP, recipient of the Legion of Honour, received on May 30, 2014.[8]
- 2014-2015, current president: Miguel Loinaz, ALS Abogados
- 2015-2016, president-elect: Jean-Jacques Uettwiller, UGGC Avocats
Resolutions and Charters
- Resolution on Multidisciplinary Practices aiming to preserve the core values of the legal profession
- Principles for lawyers establishing a firm outside of their country, adopted and presented to the World Trade Organization.
- Resolution advocating the abolishment of the death penalty.
- Code of Conduct for Lawyers in the 21st Century that takes into account rapid changes in technology and the forces of globalization.
- Resolution for the right to health as a basic human right.[9]
- Declaration of fundamental principles of the legal profession, written by the principal presidents of bar associations meeting in Paris in November 2005
- UIA on the most important of the challenges facing the global legal profession today.
- To be recognized as a global association partner of the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (CLEP)
References
- ↑ http://data.decalog.net/enap1/Liens/fonds/F9A43.pdf
- ↑ http://daccess-dds-ny.un.org/doc/UNDOC/LTD/V11/848/32/PDF/V1184832.pdf?OpenElement
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 http://www.uianet.org
- ↑ http://www.internationalmeetingsreview.com/europe/uia-come-florence-2014-93285
- ↑ http://www.iwacu-burundi.org/radiation-de-me-rufyikiri-de-lordre-des-avocats-huit-confreres-pour-la-defense/
- ↑ http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/company/financial-crime/received_responses/responses-to-the-consultation/uia_fr.pdf
- ↑ http://legal.un.org/ola/media/info_from_lc/mss/speeches/MSS_UIA-29%20May%202014.pdf
- ↑ http://www.ambafrance-us.org/spip.php?article5674
- ↑ http://www.barreau.qc.ca/pdf/journal/vol37/no14/charte.html