Attending UNCITRAL Working Group Sessions
UNCCA has sent a call to its members for Expressions of Interest to attend UNCITRAL Working Group Sessions as delegates, and to all Australian Law Schools to nominate students to participate in the UNCCA UNLAWS Scheme.
The UNLAWS Scheme is an UNCCA program enabling Australian law students to attend UNCITRAL Working Group meetings in Vienna and New York as part of a delegation led by an Australian UNCCA expert approved by the Chair of the relevant UNCCA Expert Advisory Committee. The aim of the UNLAWS Scheme is to increase awareness of the work of UNCITRAL and to provide students with a unique opportunity to participate in the consideration and formulation of future harmonised legal texts in relation to trade law.?Participation in the UNLAWS scheme is typically limited to two students per session, based on merit selection.?Students must be self-funded, with individual law schools being encouraged to offer assistance to any students selected. There is no fee payable to apply, but approved attendees are required to join UNCCA, with lead delegates also required to take up membership with LawAsia – the organisation securing the participation of UNCCA delegates at the Working Group sessions.
To date, over 20 lead delegates and some 60 students have attended UNCITRAL sessions through UNCCA. The students were from: Australian National University; Bond University; Curtin University; Griffith University; La Trobe University; Monash University; Queensland University of Technology; University of Canberra; University of Newcastle; University of New South Wales; University of Queensland; University of Sydney; University of Western Sydney; University of Wollongong; and Victoria University.
There are up to 12 UNCITRAL WG sessions per year, with the upcoming calendar of sessions being:
Working Group I – Micro, Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
7-11 October 2019, Vienna
23-27 March 2020, New York
Working Group II – Arbitration and Conciliation / Dispute Settlement
3-7 February 2020, New York
Working Group III – Investor-State Dispute Settlement Reform
14-18 October 2019, Vienna
20-24 January 2020, Vienna
30 March to 3 April 2020, New York
Working Group IV – Electronic Commerce
25-29 November 2019, Vienna
6-9 April 2020, New York
Working Group V – Insolvency Law
2-5 December 2019, Vienna
11-14 May 2020, New York
Working Group VI – Judicial Sale of Ships
18-22 November 2019, Vienna
20-24 April 2020, New York
Application Deadline
At the date of this Newsletter, applications for the Vienna sessions are still open for WG VI (21 Oct), WG IV (28 Oct), and WG V (4 Nov).
Applications for the 2020 New York sessions will be due by January and March 2020, respectively, with a separate call to be circulated towards the end of this year. Early expressions of interest are always welcome.
Student applications must be submitted to the Convenor of the UNLAWS Scheme Dr Alan Davidson, Education Director of UNCCA. Dr Davidson is a Board member of UNCCA and has attended all Working Group IV sessions of UNCITRAL since 2014. Dr Davidson may be contacted: a.davidson@law.uq.edu.au or at 07 336 522 94.
EOIs for lead delegates must be submitted to the Chair of the relevant Expert Advisory Committee and/or to Dr Alan Davidson and Dr Dalma Demeter, Deputy Chair of UNCCA (available at office@dalmademeter.com or at info@uncca.org).