The central theme for the AIJA Annual Congress 2018 in Brussels will be globalisation – but how exactly will that be addressed within the wider scientific programme? According to Andreas White, past president of the AIJA Labour Law Commission, “When we started to plan the scientific programme, it was against the backdrop of global upheaval and uncertainty. So we arrived at the following working title: ‘Imagine all the people: is the dream of globalisation over? Are we heading towards or away from international integration?’”
Established patterns of international trade and commerce, and the national and supranational legal rules that underpin them, appear to be under threat from developments around the world. The seminars currently being finalised by the various commissions will therefore cover the following key topics: cross border transactions and disputes, restrictions on transactions (including antitrust and local regulatory restrictions), the modern international family (from a private client, tax and immigration perspective), global retail (from a real estate and commercial perspective), global employment mobility, the perspective of emerging economies with respect to globalisation, global human rights standards, fake news, and parallel imports.
“At the Brussels Annual Congress 2018, a number of Commissions will be teaming up to organise joint sessions, offering a multidisciplinary view of relevant topics” says Karen Ruback, member of the AIJA Antitrust Commission. “Also, given that globalisation is the basic theme for the Congress, the sessions will likely contain greater emphasis on a comparative analysis of legal systems of different jurisdictions, and discussions on the main challenges when different legal systems apply to a specific matter.”
“We are encouraging AIJA’s 20 scientific (sub)commissions to team up with each other to organise slots on current topics of interest to more than one commission”, says White. “We also encourage them to get as many members as possible actively involved in the preparation of their slot.”
The Voice of the Profession seminar focused on human rights and the joint ABA SIL session are all highly anticipated, and are once again expected to be highlights within the scientific programme.
The plenary session organised by the SCILL Commission, on the last day of the scientific programme, “will offer valuable content to the participants, aiming at developing or improving their skills and identifying the tools to develop a global network and get new clients”, adds Jean-Rodolphe Fiechter, Vice President of the AIJA SCILL Commission. After all, the spirit of AIIJA is not about retreating behind national borders and protectionism – our strength lies in our international network.
Keep up to date at http://brussels.aija.org.