Alina Škiljić, a Croatian lawyer specialised in the areas of data and privacy protection, intellectual property, competition and corporate law, was granted a scholarship to attend the AIJA Commissions Month.
She shares her takeaways and deeper insights in the comprehensive article attached, where she details her impressions on the SCILL, T.R.A.D.E, Antitrust, IP/TMT, and Labour Law Commission Days.
I had the privilege and opportunity to attend the AIJA Commissions Month, an exceptionally insightful and interesting online event organised by the International Association of Young Lawyers (AIJA), from 20 October to 20 November 2020.
The event was hosted by AIJA’s 21 Commissions and covered the majority of law practice areas and professional interests. Leading legal experts from all around the world discussed and presented their experiences, advice and opinions on the latest legal topics and issues. One of the best things about AIJA’s event was its flexibility and inclusivity – once registered, the event offered a unique virtual passport which enabled all participants, including me, to attend the entire programme and to observe the interconnection of different legal fields, such as tech, IP, commercial and competition law, data protection and privacy, etc.
In this article, I present and discuss a vast array of topics that were examined through the SCILL Commission, T.R.A.D.E Commission, Antitrust Commission, IP/TMT Commission and Labour Law Commission programmes in which I have participated, and the insights and knowledge I have acquired through these Commissions thanks to the generously granted scholarship by AIJA. Where possible and appropriate, I also refer to the legal issues / solutions from my jurisdiction – Croatia.
· SCILL Commission Day
Firstly, I elaborate on the “Innovation – Legal tech development” webinar in which panellists shared their experiences related to legal tech development, and particularly on the presentation of Ms. Joyce Pitcher who presented three different legal tech projects she is involved with. I then share with the readers a very interesting definition and perspective of Mr. Grégoire Miot on Legal Tech, as having a two-fold approach: B2B and B2C.
· T.R.A.D.E. Commission Day
In the article I also elaborate on the insights I gained through the “Hot topics in international commercial contracts” webinar, which perfectly epitomised how lawyers advising clients in commercial contractual matters must be skilled in other areas as well, such as intellectual property and private international law. The speakers, Ms. Marika Devaux, Mr. Alessandro Paci and Mr. Gustavo Papeschi focused on presenting a selection of sensitive clauses in international commercial contracts – intellectual property, liquidated damages, and choice of law clauses, which was very insightful and has provided a lot of practical examples. The speakers also provided extremely useful and thoughtful drafting techniques and stressed out how being creative as a lawyer is very important.
· Antirust Commission Day
Further, I elaborate on my experiences from participating in the Antitrust Commission Day, and particularly on the amazing presentation and very useful insights given by Ms. Kingma, who presented the new policy of the Dutch Competition Authority which aims to promote sustainability in relation with the application of the Article 101(3) TFEU and addresses the exemptions for prohibited agreements.
· IP/TMT Commission Day
In the last part of this article, I share my experiences and acquired knowledge from the IP/TMT Commission programme, which was composed of four panels on Data Protection and Intellectual Property. I specifically address the cross-border data transfers, a topic which was addressed during a webinar on the implications of the ECJ’s “Schrems II” decision as of 16 July 2020. The decision declared the "EU-US-Privacy Shield" invalid and consequently caused that transfers of personal data to the US can no longer be based on the Privacy Shield. The discussion between Mr. Johannes Struck and Ms. Rim Ben Ammaron on the ECJ’s decision was very interesting and has provided me with some very interesting thoughts.
· Labour Law Commission Day
Finally, I elaborate on the webinar “Sensitive health data: can we afford to “close the eyes” towards data protection law in light of extreme situations?” and the webinar “COVID-19 – Health concerns and privacy issues” from the Labour Law Commission. I found particularly useful the scenario part of the webinar in which the speakers - Ms. Cabell Clay from the US, Mr. Philipp Haymann, from Switzerland, Ms. Ailie Murray from the UK and Ms. Chantal Bakermans from the Netherlands discussed COVID-19 related data from employees (e.g. information on travelling to “risky” countries, contacts, test results, etc.).
Participation in the AIJA Commissions Month has provided me with new and significant knowledge, legal thoughts, ideas for my further research, and with very beneficial insights into topics of interest and related to my specialisation. I am delighted to be sharing more information in this article for the AIJA community.